Traffic Blues - Irish Version of Police Stop, Sun 31/05/09, 2030, RTE1

Chris_533976

As we know, Irish police generally dont get much respect on Boards. I've long said that they could be thought of a little better if they did an Irish version of Police Stop or other such follow-the-policeman-around show.

They finally did, and they have a six part series starting at 830pm on RTE1, Sun 31/5/09. Traffic Blues its called.

Heres the blurb from TV3s site (as RTE website only does a TV guide for today and tomorrow, idiots)

A new six part fly-on-the-wall series which looks into the work of the Garda Traffic Corps and finds just how dangerous and badly behaved we really are on our roads.

(New Series, Subtitles, Part 1 of 6)

I'll definately be watching as it will be very interesting (and I'm sure will be a hilarious laugh on here picking holes in the Gardas driving )

Just a heads up for people.

lord lucan

Strangely this is the first home-produced programme from the national broadcaster that i've looked forward to in ages!:p

spareman

Chris_533976 wrote: »

as RTE website only does a TV guide for today and tomorrow, idiots

wonder would that have something to do with their weekly glossy publication?

corktina

Chris_533976 wrote: »

As we know, Irish police generally dont get much respect on Boards. I've long said that they could be thought of a little better if they did an Irish version of Police Stop or other such follow-the-policeman-around show.

They finally did, and they have a six part series starting at 830pm on RTE1, Sun 31/5/09. Traffic Blues its called.

Heres the blurb from TV3s site (as RTE website only does a TV guide for today and tomorrow, idiots)



I'll definately be watching as it will be very interesting (and I'm sure will be a hilarious laugh on here picking holes in the Gardas driving )

Just a heads up for people.

Ya we followed one in Cork today, straddling two lanes all the way from Voctoria Cross to Denneys Cross....

Gruffalo

Chris_533976 wrote: »

As we know, Irish police generally dont get much respect on Boards. I've long said that they could be thought of a little better if they did an Irish version of Police Stop or other such follow-the-policeman-around show.

They finally did, and they have a six part series starting at 830pm on RTE1, Sun 31/5/09. Traffic Blues its called.

Heres the blurb from TV3s site (as RTE website only does a TV guide for today and tomorrow, idiots)



I'll definately be watching as it will be very interesting (and I'm sure will be a hilarious laugh on here picking holes in the Gardas driving )

Just a heads up for people.

Perhaps you could show them respect and stop referring to them as "Police". It would be respect for your own culture too.

As for the show, while I hate these kind of shows, but seeing as they are very popular around the world, it is strange that it has taken this long to produce such a show.

seanybiker

Deadly. Cant wait to see this.

Id say it will be funny. Mainly just because we will know the roads and everything.
Hopefully it will show people that cops dont go around picking their hole.

Sponge Bob

One of the programs will be all about the 2 fat cnuts who spend their working lives in a hedge west of the Quality Hotel in Oranmore and who clock up more 65mph in a 60 summonses than any other peelers in the country .

Tarabuses

Gruffalo wrote: »

Perhaps you could show them respect and stop referring to them as "Police". It would be respect for your own culture too.

As for the show, while I hate these kind of shows, but seeing as they are very popular around the world, it is strange that it has taken this long to produce such a show.

They are called Gardai but they are also our police.

Amtmann

I wasn't blown away by it at all. They left that lunatic businessman in the SUV on the M1 off far too lightly. As for that scut in Donegal...

Chris_533976

I kinda hope this program will make people wake up and realise what a sham the traffic corps here are. I made a few notes, purely out of nerdishness.

- I saw cars merrily driving in a bus lane
- One person BLATENTLY hogging the overtaking lane of a D3M with no other traffic in sight
- The unaccompanied provisional licence driver was a disgrace. Its illegal but the guards ignored it. He also had no L plates, a car belching steam and a wing mirror missing. One of the guards said that his car was not fit to be driven but to take it home straight away. In the UK the car would have been seized and the driver would walk
- One guard referred to a driver drifting due to tiredness (and hence reported for drunk driving by a gracious member of the public) as 'its nothing'
- Another guard saying 'its only a red light', referring of course to a traffic light that had just been run

Brilliant.


Was that barrier actually an armco or was it a Jersey?

Ham'nd'egger

Gruffalo wrote: »

Perhaps you could show them respect and stop referring to them as "Police". It would be respect for your own culture too.

As for the show, while I hate these kind of shows, but seeing as they are very popular around the world, it is strange that it has taken this long to produce such a show.

TG4 used to have a traffic cop show some years ago that included some Garda filming.

timmywex

Chris_533976 wrote: »

I
- - The unaccompanied provisional licence driver was a disgrace. Its illegal but the guards ignored it. He also had no L plates, a car belching steam and a wing mirror missing. One of the guards said that his car was not fit to be driven but to take it home straight away. In the UK the car would have been seized and the driver would walk
-

?

I agree, but really and truly, the lad would have been put on the jlo scheme anywho. Not sure about powers of seizure in ireland!?

D-Boy

Given the powers and resources they have not to mention limited prison space they cant throw the book at everyone and the odd stern warning does.

L1011

Hamndegger wrote: »

TG4 used to have a traffic cop show some years ago that included some Garda filming.

"Garda, Camara, Gafa" or something along those lines - was Police Camera Action from the UK with minimal amounts of Irish content added and all the links re-filmed with a female presenter as gaelige.

Chris_533976

D-Boy wrote: »

Given the powers and resources they have not to mention limited prison space they cant throw the book at everyone and the odd stern warning does.

Assuming he'd been previously caught doing 135kmh in a 100kmh zone he would have been told more than 'go about your merry way' if I'd been in charge.

The Maverick

Sponge Bob wrote: »

One of the programs will be all about the 2 fat cnuts who spend their working lives in a hedge west of the Quality Hotel in Oranmore and who clock up more 65mph in a 60 summonses than any other peelers in the country .

Bitter much?

Sponge Bob

The Maverick wrote: »

Bitter much?

They don't bite women , no

L1011

This is up on RTE Player now. Nice use of Orbital - Belfast at the start...

dirtynosebeps

Chris_533976 wrote: »

I kinda hope this program will make people wake up and realise what a sham the traffic corps here are. I made a few notes, purely out of nerdishness.
- The unaccompanied provisional licence driver was a disgrace. Its illegal but the guards ignored it. He also had no L plates, a car belching steam and a wing mirror missing. One of the guards said that his car was not fit to be driven but to take it home straight away. In the UK the car would have been seized and the driver would walk

saw the programme alright just goes to show what you can get away with in this country. i counted at least 4 penalty points for this guy alone. maybe someone can go higher.
(1)2 points for not having a qualified driver(2) 2 points for no L plates.
but what sickens me is this guy was caught speeding before in the same car and when he comes to the attention of the guards again he's let off.

Chris_533976 wrote: »

I kinda hope this program will make people wake up and realise what a sham the traffic corps here are. I made a few notes, purely out of nerdishness.
- Another guard saying 'its only a red light', referring of course to a traffic light that had just been run

also in another breath the guard says that if one of the motor bikes had taken off there would've more than a broken red light to deal with.
then you have yer man in donegal that led everyone on a crazy chase. let him try and do that in the states and see how far he gets.opps i meant walks.he would'nt have been able to walk into the squad car if he had done it over there.
another is yer man in drogheda caught drink driving. after the test the guard tells him he's in no fit state to drive the car.i thought this was hilarious as the car was nearly a write off. it was more like the car was in no fit state to drive. i forgot the disgualification but he was fined only €500. he should've been locked up. there should be zero tollerence for drink driving. in fact the limit should be down to zero.
overall it shows how lenient the guards are. plus programme way to short. not enough for the 20-25 mins air time.

Chris_533976

Yeah "our only option is the stinger". What about ramming him off the road like the American police, and increasingly the British police, are doing. Now maybe it wasnt possible in this case due to other traffic, but I got the distinct impression that it wouldnt even have been considered.

L1011

Chris_533976 wrote: »

Yeah "our only option is the stinger". What about ramming him off the road like the American police, and increasingly the British police, are doing. Now maybe it wasnt possible in this case due to other traffic, but I got the distinct impression that it wouldnt even have been considered.

They were basically unable to catch him to do that, though...

Chris_533976

... because Irish police cars are vastly underpowered compared to what they need. With all the motorways being built they need a handful of seriously high performance cars LIKE OTHER COUNTRIES.

Zoney

Chris_533976 wrote: »

... because Irish police cars are vastly underpowered compared to what they need. With all the motorways being built they need a handful of seriously high performance cars LIKE OTHER COUNTRIES.

Yeah, though for things like that we might actually need lower costs to avoid inflated budgets with little room for extras, and substantial taxation to properly fund our services LIKE OTHER COUNTRIES (e.g. have less people who pay no income tax, and have proper services so they can afford to pay tax instead of paying privately or directly to the govt for everything).

donvito99

Chris_533976 wrote: »

Yeah "our only option is the stinger". What about ramming him off the road like the American police, and increasingly the British police, are doing. Now maybe it wasnt possible in this case due to other traffic, but I got the distinct impression that it wouldnt even have been considered.

Ramming him at tat speed would kill both the driver of the car and the gardai.

donvito99

Chris_533976 wrote: »

- One person BLATENTLY hogging the overtaking lane of a D3M with no other traffic in sight

They were on route to an accident. What would you do, give the driver blocking lane 3 a ticket, or go to a serious accident.

murphaph

Unfortunately I can't see the bloody thing as I'm outside Ireland.

childoforpheus

Chris_533976 wrote: »

Yeah "our only option is the stinger". What about ramming him off the road like the American police, and increasingly the British police, are doing. Now maybe it wasnt possible in this case due to other traffic, but I got the distinct impression that it wouldnt even have been considered.

And if he was 'rammed' off the road and died as a result or was injured who do you think would be blamed?

spareman

murphaph wrote: »

Unfortunately I can't see the bloody thing as I'm outside Ireland.

http://www.rte.ie/tv/trafficblues/ Watch Here:)

murphaph

spareman wrote: »

http://www.rte.ie/tv/trafficblues/ Watch Here:)

thanks but I meant that I can't watch it on RTE iplayer. It's blocked:

RTE wrote:

We're sorry but RTÉ player is currently only available to viewers in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Viewers in other territories can still continue to access a selection of RTÉ programmes on www.rte.ie.
Thank you for your interest in RTÉ player and we will keep you updated on future developments.

I believe it' possible to use a proxy but I don't know how. I'll just watch it next time I'm home.

1huge1

I didn't understand why when your man was coming to the Northern Ireland border as if the place was a safe haven for criminals saying he would of got away from them.

Ok I'm sure northern ireland is outside their jurisdiction but surely they have links with the PSNI like, would be one of the numbers i'd have on speed dial if I was a policeman here.

BendiBus

dirtynosebeps wrote: »

i forgot the disgualification but he was fined only €500. he should've been locked up. there should be zero tollerence for drink driving. in fact the limit should be down to zero.
overall it shows how lenient the guards are.

I don't believe the Gardai make the rules or choose the penalties.

But how that kid on the provisional was let drive away in that piece of sh1t car is beyond me. The JLO thing was good but he was an immediate danger to himself and others.

L1011

1huge1 wrote: »

I didn't understand why when your man was coming to the Northern Ireland border as if the place was a safe haven for criminals saying he would of got away from them.

Ok I'm sure northern ireland is outside their jurisdiction but surely they have links with the PSNI like, would be one of the numbers i'd have on speed dial if I was a policeman here.

After he was caught, the radio traffic has the girl saying something like "will I cancel the PSNI?" and the response being "yeah, he's not going anywhere soon" or something similar. I take it from that that they'd informed them...

Terrontress

murphaph wrote: »

thanks but I meant that I can't watch it on RTE iplayer. It's blocked:



I believe it' possible to use a proxy but I don't know how. I'll just watch it next time I'm home.

PM Sent

donvito99

1huge1 wrote: »

I didn't understand why when your man was coming to the Northern Ireland border as if the place was a safe haven for criminals saying he would of got away from them.

Ok I'm sure northern ireland is outside their jurisdiction but surely they have links with the PSNI like, would be one of the numbers i'd have on speed dial if I was a policeman here.

When TETRA (digital radio) is rolled out across the force, it will provide limited access to the PSNI. I think the procedure at the moment is that they radio the garda station who ring the PSNI station who then organise the PSNI response.

1huge1

Ah I see, thanks guys

murphaph

Just watched it there (thanks to Terrontress ;-) ). It was pretty informative but to echo others-disgraceful to see a 17 yo unaccompanied learner driver with a clearly unroadworthy car driving with no L plates be allowed to just go home. A few short miles over the border in Northern Ireland and he'd be using shank's mare to get home and his piece of junk would likely be crushed.

The rest of it was ok but I highly doubt a UK police car would follow a driver wrong side sown a dual carriageway at any speed. That chase would have been abandoned in the UK as it was just too dangerous to other road users.

Being so close to NI surely does put extra pressure on the guards there though. All in all, a good programme and looking forward to more.

NFD100

I thought it was a very timid affair. I can't see any other TV station buying it... Way too dull for a UK audience. As a Solicitor in London, have the following observations. Couple of things, you would NOT get away with in the UK:

1) The 17 year old guy without licence/ accompanying driver/L-plates, no God knows what.. Would have been brought to the nearest station. He would have been charged or cautioned. The car would have been seized as unroadworthy.

2) The Garda in Dundalk didn't even caution the drink driver before putting him in handcuffs. As a result, the arrest is unlawful.

3) The SUV driver would have been charged with careless or inconsiderate driving. 2 penalty points is absolutely laughable.

4) In my opinion, a public information campaign should be launched to explain to Irish drivers that when the siren or lights go on, pull over to the left! It is an offence not to in the UK.

donvito99

NFD100 wrote: »

I can't see any other TV station buying it...

They'd buy the chase scenes though. Road Wars are always doing it ,mainly US chases.

Cookie_Monster

NFD100 wrote: »

4) In my opinion, a public information campaign should be launched to explain to Irish drivers that when the siren or lights go on, pull over to the left! It is an offence not to in the UK.

iirc from the Emergency Services forum there is no obligation to move out of the way here at all.

ardmacha

I noticed that policing seemed to still be done in MPH in Donegal.

NedNew

ardmacha wrote: »

I noticed that policing seemed to still be done in MPH in Donegal.

Yeah I noticed that too - it's quaint and unprofessional sounding, in contrast to all the other gardai in the episode.

subway

maybe one of the gardai on here can comment on this.
at the start of the show, around 2.30 there is the line -
"i tell ya lads, theres a huge problem here with the usual rubber neckers we need to get them moved on"

when the two in the jeep get to the scene we find that the fire brigade have blocked the lanes so no one can move.
the commentator then praises a "quick thinking lorry driver" for blocking the lanes as soon as he saw the accident to prvent further crashes.

im interested to know if that line was over dubbed afterwards, if the garda who was on scene making that transmission was a bit simple, or if its the disdain the gardai have for the genreal public, assuming that if there is a tailback at an accident its becuase a load of eejits are rubbernecking.

i know people go on about it, but even if there was a gap to allow them to drive along the hard shoulder (which there wasnt) would you prefer them to drive at 120kmph or slow down and pass safely (otherwise known as rubbernecking)

Jip

They may have been talking about the opposite side, something that regulalry happens when there's an accident on he M50, people going the other direction slow down for a gawk.

But what struck me more was that the garda traffic corps had to get to the scene from Dublin Castle. I know they're based there but surely they'd be more effective out on patrol. Then again they could have just been starting their shift.

subway

Jip wrote: »

They may have been talking about the opposite side, something that regulalry happens when there's an accident on he M50, people going the other direction slow down for a gawk.

i thought that myself, but if they were being called in to keep the opposite side moving, why did they approach on this side, stop and, apparently, do nothing else?

murphaph

subway wrote: »

i thought that myself, but if they were being called in to keep the opposite side moving, why did they approach on this side, stop and, apparently, do nothing else?

Cos they haven't got the first idea what they're at?

I watch a show here called "Achtung! Kontrolle" which is a police traffic corps following show. It's a world apart from the stuff we saw on RTE. On last night's episode a foreign curtain-sider lorry was pulled over and the cops weren't happy with the way the load was internally secured (to me as a layman it looked quite well strapped down tbh) and told the driver he'd have to call his boss and get someone to come out with more strapping etc. and that he wasn't to move the truck until this was done. The driver's boss said "it'll take 2 days to get someone there". The cops said to the driver "ok, you will have to sleep in the cab for a couple of days". They simply were not going to let the lorry back onto the Autobahn. They fine people here for cycling on the footpath ffs and for having defective lights on your bicycle! I know they have more resources here but it' more than that-they take their job that bit more seriously.

Rovi

Jip wrote: »

They may have been talking about the opposite side, something that regulalry happens when there's an accident on he M50, people going the other direction slow down for a gawk.

I know that if I'm travelling on a motorway (or any other road for that matter) and I see emergency services strobe lights ahead in the distance, I'll be slowing down and preparing to stop.
If it transpires as I get closer to the scene that all the 'action' is on the other side of the barriers, I'll accelerate back to cruising speed and resume my journey.

I don't think the above is an unreasonable approach to take to such a scenario, but on heavily trafficked roads like the M50, it's probably going to lead to a 'concertina effect' of some sort on traffic flow.

Chris_533976

Couple of observations on tonight show (just finished)

- Blatently blocked drains (full of growing weeds) - no wonder the M50 was flooded
- Those people should have got the court summons for walking across the M50, disgraceful that it was dropped
- I could be wrong on this, but I thought the rule was that if you break down on a motorway, do NOT remain with your vehicle???
- They should have hopped over the barrier onto the nice safe grass verge
- Bike had no insurance and a driver that probably knew what he was doing, being in the country with an out of date czech insurance cert and he was let go. He said his insurance had been posted to the Czech republic, I dont buy that
- They were watching the driver do 120kh on an S2 road being a complete dick for ages (obscene overtaking) but they didnt pull him over for ages. He was arrested but IMO for the wrong reasons (they seemed to arrest him because he couldnt prove he lived in the republic?)
- I felt the guard who was talking to the 'light headed' driver wasnt good. That woman should have been stopped from driving, not asked 'do you think you're ok to keep going?'

Though I will congratulate the system on giving that moron with the slashhook in his car and being totally drunk an 8 month prison sentence but a FIFTEEN YEAR driving ban

fortuneteller

Just sat through the traffic blues programme.Enjoyed it as it was well put together but two things surprised me.In the 1st clip of the girls trying to cross the motorway one of the gardai is grossly obease,and on the interview appears to be wearing a gold earing in his right ear? Am i seeing things or what,Also the garda that stopped the drunk driver in the red nissan in louth is also grossly over weight and looks only about 35.:eek:

Random

There must be a thread about this in every forum with different takes on it.

Here's one in this forum, 3 posts down.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055578653

You're probably better off in one of those threads

Chris_533976

I hope this is a thread merge or someone has completely lost the plot

Random

Chris_533976 wrote: »

I hope this is a thread merge or someone has completely lost the plot

Yup. Dam mods. This place would be better off without them!