gardai having fun on M8 today

patrickc

they had a good laugh today at me and others, and nothing we can do about it.

they were in a marked toyota landcruiser towing an inflatable boat down the M8 (no reg on the trailer either) , they sat at between 100/120kph in the overtaking lane all the way, and would not budge into the left lane at all.

big line of cars behind them and naturally no-one would undertake as it's illegal.
they were laughing in the jeep at us, after the toll I got infront as I have a tag and they sped up to get back infront of me and others again, fun and games for them.
just one question whats the legal speed for towing a trailer?

I don't know if they were radioing in but an unmarked car was there for speeding to, just as the speed changes from 120, to 100 approaching Cork.

anyhow rant over

tommycahir

Hi Patrick

I am open to correction on this but according to the RSA site the followingthe speed for any vehicle towing a trailer, caravan, horsebox or other attachment is 80 kilometres an hour (80km/h)

Not 100% sure if that applies to the motorway though.

http://www.rulesoftheroad.ie/rules-for-driving/speed-limits/speed-limits_for-vehicles.html

pete4130

Isn't it legal to undertake if you are doing the correct speed limit and traffic to the right is moving slower? So if you stuck at 120kph an undertook them you aren't doing anything illegal....but tell that to our professional police service......

road_high

Disgraceful. There are far too many of those over paid guards in this country driving around do sweet eff all at our expense. I mean wtf do most of 'em do
Sack half the lot of them and honestly the country would be fine. I'm not the least bit surprised at what the OP said.

bazzachazza

mfitzy wrote: »

Disgraceful. There are far too many of those over paid guards in this country driving around do sweet eff all at our expense. I mean wtf do most of 'em do
Sack half the lot of them and honestly the country would be fine. I'm not the least bit surprised at what the OP said.

Well thought out argument there.

road_high

bazzachazza wrote: »

Well thought out argument there.

Yea, cheers glad you think so

antomorro-sei

Funny stuff alright by the Garda lol

Mister Man

Therea bunch of Pricks lads.... My father parked somewhere for 2 mins (im not lying) and the gardi sticks a ticket on the car, or so they say they did,then some idiot women Garda comes to the door of my house, 8a.m On a Sat. Morning and sits on the bell :@ and says heres a ticket for your father, I was like, Yeah sound, Clearly nothing better to do with your time then....

So he went to his friend, whos a garda aswel,and he says he will sort it all out for him, he heard nothing back from him, so he guess he sorted it for him, and next thing he knows theres a thing in the newpaper saying he's going to Jail (lol) for 6 months for not appearing....

Now to wrap this up, He double parked somewhere at 7a.m for a 2 mins, and gets a ticket, and not only that but the gardi clearly had nothing better to do then to go through the trouble to do all of this... Now every day i hear about people getting into fights, robbing, etc... But they stil waste there time with poxy things like these tickets,and i personly think it was odd that the ticket wasnt there, the reminder never came, etc but next thing you know hes failed to appear in court, i think that there actualy getting a kick from all of this, which is sad.....


Anyway i hope i don't sound like im just ****ing on about nothing lol

Johnny Utah

One law for you and one law for them. I've seen this sort of carry on myself many times before. We need Jimmy Justice over here!

antomorro-sei

Johnny Utah wrote: »

Funny enough, the other day I was coming out of the chemist, when I saw an unmarked Mondeo pulling up outside and parked illegally, blocking the footpath/cyclepath. The driver, who was on his own, hops out without a care in the world and straight into the Centra across the road. Must have been on 'official business'. :rolleyes:

Snackanigans ad just keeps coming into my head :pac:

Berty

There is not much you can do as nobody polices the police.

Not even the ombudsman. I e-mailed them after dangerous manouvers by a GTC in Limerick City.

They wrote to me saying this is nothing that can be followed up by an Ombudsman and my first port of call should be the desk Sergeant who told me to "stick it" and if I didn't like it I can write to the Ombudsman.

Long story short nobody gave a rats!

Johnny Utah

Mister Man wrote: »

Therea bunch of Pricks lads.... My father parked somewhere for 2 mins (im not lying) and the gardi sticks a ticket on the car, or so they say they did,then some idiot women Garda comes to the door of my house, 8a.m On a Sat. Morning and sits on the bell :@ and says heres a ticket for your father, I was like, Yeah sound, Clearly nothing better to do with your time then....

So he went to his friend, whos a garda aswel,and he says he will sort it all out for him, he heard nothing back from him, so he guess he sorted it for him, and next thing he knows theres a thing in the newpaper saying he's going to Jail (lol) for 6 months for not appearing....

Now to wrap this up, He double parked somewhere at 7a.m for a 2 mins, and gets a ticket, and not only that but the gardi clearly had nothing better to do then to go through the trouble to do all of this... Now every day i hear about people getting into fights, robbing, etc... But they stil waste there time with poxy things like these tickets,and i personly think it was odd that the ticket wasnt there, the reminder never came, etc but next thing you know hes failed to appear in court, i think that there actualy getting a kick from all of this, which is sad.....


Anyway i hope i don't sound like im just ****ing on about nothing lol

Funny enough, the other day I was coming out of the chemist, when I saw an unmarked Mondeo pulling up on the footpath outside. The car was parked illegally, thereby blocking the footpath/cyclepath on a busy road. The driver, who was on his own, hops out without a care in the world and straight into the Centra across the road. Must have been on 'official business'. :rolleyes:

Seth Brundle

This all reminds me of my recent thread...

pete4130 wrote: »

Isn't it legal to undertake if you are doing the correct speed limit and traffic to the right is moving slower? So if you stuck at 120kph an undertook them you aren't doing anything illegal....but tell that to our professional police service......

:rolleyes:

ROTR wrote:

You may overtake on the left when

• You want to go straight ahead when the driver in front of you has moved out and signalled that they intend to turn right.
• You have signalled that you intend to turn left.
• Traffic in both lanes is moving slowly and traffic in the left-hand lane is moving more quickly than the traffic in the right-hand lane.

http://www.rulesoftheroad.ie/rules-for-driving/good-driving-practice/overtaking.html

Effectively, you cannot undertake unless you are either turning left or are driving slowly (but a bit faster than the other lane)

patrickc

pete4130 wrote: »

Isn't it legal to undertake if you are doing the correct speed limit and traffic to the right is moving slower? So if you stuck at 120kph an undertook them you aren't doing anything illegal....but tell that to our professional police service......

I wasn't taking the chance anyhow

tommycahir wrote: »

Hi Patrick

I am open to correction on this but according to the RSA site the followingthe speed for any vehicle towing a trailer, caravan, horsebox or other attachment is 80 kilometres an hour (80km/h)

Not 100% sure if that applies to the motorway though.

http://www.rulesoftheroad.ie/rules-for-driving/speed-limits/speed-limits_for-vehicles.html

yeh I thought it was 80kph alright. i was tempted to ring traffic watch but wouldnt be worth it if i did, probably be picked on by some colleague or other

Saab Ed

OP the very same thing happened me not so long ago.......

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055471784


I got hammered on that thread by every guard in the country for saying what you just said. They gave every reason in the law why they can do it but none of them explained how and why its safe to do so. Lead by example and all that.......

Fishtits

Firstly, in relation to the OP's post, if they were carrying on like that then shame on them.

Reference KB's post on the rules re overtaking/undertaking... post that on the Legal forum and I'm pretty sure it will provoke a lively debate...

Hairy old chestnut this one.

patrickc

Saab Ed wrote: »

OP the very same thing happened me not so long ago.......

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055471784


I got hammered on that thread by every guard in the country for saying what you just said. They gave every reason in the law why they can do it but none of them explained how and why its safe to do so. Lead by example and all that.......

slightly different though, cos they were in a bus lane in your case, in my case they just held up the motorway for the fun of it from what I can see. it wasn't particularly busy and they could have easily let people overtake them by pulling over.

it does seem though they have alot of excuses, would love to hear the Gardai's one for today

patrickc

Fishtits wrote: »

Firstly, in relation to the OP's post, if they were carrying on like that then shame on them.

they certainely were, I'm not going to write that just for the craic, normally I have nothing but respect for them, but today they just drove me mad.

there was an A4, a 207cc, an old corolla and a few more that I can't think of in the line of traffic behind them, maybe one of them is a boards poster and wants to tell their side of it .

donvito99

Nobodies perfect.

MisterMan wrote:

Therea bunch of Pricks lads.... My father parked somewhere for 2 mins (im not lying) and the gardi sticks a ticket on the car, or so they say they did,then some idiot women Garda comes to the door of my house, 8a.m On a Sat. Morning and sits on the bell :@ and says heres a ticket for your father, I was like, Yeah sound, Clearly nothing better to do with your time then....

So he went to his friend, whos a garda aswel,and he says he will sort it all out for him, he heard nothing back from him, so he guess he sorted it for him, and next thing he knows theres a thing in the newpaper saying he's going to Jail (lol) for 6 months for not appearing....

Now to wrap this up, He double parked somewhere at 7a.m for a 2 mins, and gets a ticket, and not only that but the gardi clearly had nothing better to do then to go through the trouble to do all of this... Now every day i hear about people getting into fights, robbing, etc... But they stil waste there time with poxy things like these tickets,and i personly think it was odd that the ticket wasnt there, the reminder never came, etc but next thing you know hes failed to appear in court, i think that there actualy getting a kick from all of this, which is sad.....


Anyway i hope i don't sound like im just ****ing on about nothing lol

I find this hard to believe.

What your Dad did was illegal. The Garda did nothing wrong with giving him a ticket.

Why didnt the Garda give the tcket to your father then and there, instead of dropping around to your house. I also find this hard to believe.

With regards to this,

Now every day i hear about people getting into fights, robbing, etc...

Presumably this happened during the day, how many fights, assaults occur at that time. Who's to say that your father parking illegally prevented that Garda attending a more serious call?


Sterotypical BS if you ask me.

peasant

patrickc wrote: »

they were laughing in the jeep at us

I would have driven in the correct lane, sitting right next to them, matching their speed ...smiling right back

I really don't do that much mileage but at least 50% of garda cars I meet (outside an emergency) are breaking some traffic law or other and the driving skills of the averge garda are ridiculously bad.
Does serious damage in the respect department, so it does.

patrickc

peasant wrote: »

I would have driven in the correct lane, sitting right next to them, matching their speed ...smiling right back

the a4 in front seemed to be doing that, i was one behind him for most of it..

i was just like WTF, pull over you pricks

tech77

Why didn't you just give them a quick flash of the lights (sound of the horn ) to let them know they were in the wrong.

I'm sure you're within your rights doing this (ie merely alerting them to their disgression).

If they don't move, logically you should be within your rights to do this repeatedly.

What's the worst they could do?
Once you're not tail-gaiting/breaking the limit.

I'm loath to criticise the garda tbh but i could well believe this kinda stuff.

AugustusMaximus

Typical from a percentage of guards who like to think they are above the law.

You rarely seem to get this from more seasoned guards who actually use common sense. Seems to come from those who are just out of Templemore.

Would have been no harm to have tape a few minutes of the jeep driving in the overtaking lane without moving over for faster traffic not to mention lack of registration plate on the trailer etc.

While the Gardai can speed in emergencies etc, behaviours such as this is completely unwarranted and is basically abuse of their position as Gardai.

You'd think they'd have learned after all that had gone on in Donegal. :rolleyes:

Seth Brundle

AugustusMaximus wrote: »

While the Gardai can speed in emergencies etc, behaviours such as this is completely unwarranted and is basically abuse of their position as Gardai.

Gardai can exceed the speed limit in the course of their duties, not just in emergencies. They are largely exempt from many rules under the road traffic act.

patrickc

kbannon wrote: »

Gardai can exceed the speed limit in the course of their duties, not just in emergencies. They are largely exempt from many rules under the road traffic act.

agreed, but they werent speeding, an emergency or flying along and not holding people up would have been a different story, and this thread would not of been written

AugustusMaximus

kbannon wrote: »

Gardai can exceed the speed limit in the course of their duties, not just in emergencies. They are largely exempt from many rules under the road traffic act.

While that is true, there is very little which can justify their actions in this case.

Mister Man

If you don't beliebe me, fair enough, but the gardai here are a joke, as another user said, it's grand for then to double park, but if someone else does it they get a tciket, and 6months....just to point out nothing happend after, again quite odd

donvito99 wrote: »

Nobodies perfect.



I find this hard to believe.

What your Dad did was illegal. The Garda did nothing wrong with giving him a ticket.

Why didnt the Garda give the tcket to your father then and there, instead of dropping around to your house. I also find this hard to believe.

With regards to this,



Presumably this happened during the day, how many fights, assaults occur at that time. Who's to say that your father parking illegally prevented that Garda attending a more serious call?


Sterotypical BS if you ask me.

sogood

kbannon wrote: »

Gardai can exceed the speed limit in the course of their duties, not just in emergencies. They are largely exempt from many rules under the road traffic act.

Wasn't there a case just recently of a Guard, possibly off duty, who claimed to be on official business, as he was involved in an accident, while driving his own car, unaccompanied, on a provisional licence, which had long since expired and never been renewed. Apparently this is ok for a Guard as they are exempt from the "normal" rules that apply to the rest of us. If it was successfully shown that he was in fact on official business, then he's in the clear!

x in the city

Honk them out of it.

Im sure there is no law saying you cant give ignorant guards a good aul honking







*then give them the finger in the rear view mirror.......

Berty

peasant wrote: »

I would have driven in the correct lane, sitting right next to them, matching their speed ...smiling right back

patrickc wrote: »

the a4 in front seemed to be doing that, i was one behind him for most of it..

i was just like WTF, pull over you pricks

Hang on so?

The A4 was driving along side the Jeep and you were wondering why the Jeep would not pull back over.

road_high

Berty wrote: »

Hang on so?

The A4 was driving along side the Jeep and you were wondering why the Jeep would not pull back over.

Well that's what I thought the overtaking lane was for i.e. the one they were using. You overtake those in the slow lane and when clear of them safely pull into the slow lane. If you cannot overtake those in the slow lane such as the Audi, then you slip back in behind them. That's what common sense would tell me to do anyways.

road_high

The fact of the matter is that Gardai are so corrupt in this country, people would have been terrified to flash them or anything as suggested.
You could be sure on further down the road they would radio ahead their immensely busy colleagues to try and do you for speeding or such like.

I still think they are way too many of them employed, if they were busy there would not be time for this kind of crap.

AugustusMaximus

mfitzy wrote: »

The fact of the matter is that Gardai are so corrupt in this country, people would have been terrified to flash them or anything as suggested.
You could be sure on further down the road they would radio ahead their immensely busy colleagues to try and do you for speeding or such like.

I still think they are way too many of them employed, if they were busy there would not be time for this kind of crap.

Flash a Garda and I'd say they'd do everything bar a strip search.

trad

This appears to be a case of bad driving on behalf of members of the Garda Water unit.

Why doesn't the OP send an email to the Garda Press Office pressoffice@garda.ie and outline in a rational manner the driving of the Garda vehicle and, whilst acknowledging that Garda vehicle are exempt a lot of provisions of the Road Traffic Act, the fact that they were towing a trailer at a speed exceeding 80km/h (an offence for us mere mortals) and driving continuously in the overtaking lane of a motorway whilst towing a trailer (again another offence) and failing to allow faster moving traffic to pass.

The OP should point out that the driving by these member detract from the otherwise excellent job they do in the Water Unit and is a Public relations disaster. The message will be passed on.

alias no.9

It's times like this that cruise control comes into its own. If you're immediately behind the Gardai, stay behind them until there is a clear run in the left lane, pull into the left lane, match their speed (as long as it's under the limit) and set the CC. If they speed up, speed up and again set your CC. If they slow down, then continue at the set speed. Go to court and explain the full story.
Anyway, all of this is beside to point. The occupants of this jeep sound like total gimps, they were playing games but were obviously not on traffic duty. You'd probably have got nothing more than some exaggerated gestures from them and a flash of the blues and twos. I doubt they'd have stopped.

kwalshe

why does this thread not suprise people. I bet as you were reading the op your were making a mental picture of the 2 gobdaws in the jeep. Remember though, not a guards are like this

Fighting Irish

Mister Man wrote: »

Therea bunch of Pricks lads.... My father parked somewhere for 2 mins (im not lying) and the gardi sticks a ticket on the car, or so they say they did,then some idiot women Garda comes to the door of my house, 8a.m On a Sat. Morning and sits on the bell :@ and says heres a ticket for your father, I was like, Yeah sound, Clearly nothing better to do with your time then....

So he went to his friend, whos a garda aswel,and he says he will sort it all out for him, he heard nothing back from him, so he guess he sorted it for him, and next thing he knows theres a thing in the newpaper saying he's going to Jail (lol) for 6 months for not appearing....

Now to wrap this up, He double parked somewhere at 7a.m for a 2 mins, and gets a ticket, and not only that but the gardi clearly had nothing better to do then to go through the trouble to do all of this... Now every day i hear about people getting into fights, robbing, etc... But they stil waste there time with poxy things like these tickets,and i personly think it was odd that the ticket wasnt there, the reminder never came, etc but next thing you know hes failed to appear in court, i think that there actualy getting a kick from all of this, which is sad.....


Anyway i hope i don't sound like im just ****ing on about nothing lol

So your dad is one of those people who thinks he can stop anywhere and just stick on his hazards, sure it's only for two minutes

testicle

kwalshe wrote: »

why does this thread not suprise people. I bet as you were reading the op your were making a mental picture of the 2 gobdaws in the jeep. Remember though, not a guards are like this

Yes, but all the guards weren't in the vehikle with the trailer, just these two chimpanzees.

Oh, Hi Guard!

robbie_998

you shouldve rang the gardi on them for wreck less driving and breaking the speed limit while towing a trailer.

although if you had under-taking them there wouldve being nothing they could do if you got away fast enough

Silvera

Johnny Utah wrote: »

Funny enough, the other day I was coming out of the chemist, when I saw an unmarked Mondeo pulling up on the footpath outside. The car was parked illegally, thereby blocking the footpath/cyclepath on a busy road. The driver, who was on his own, hops out without a care in the world and straight into the Centra across the road. Must have been on 'official business'. :rolleyes:

Did you actually see them coming back out with something they purchased?

Maybe, just maybe, there was a shoplifter on the premises or something...it does happen you know.

Silvera

trad wrote: »

This appears to be a case of bad driving on behalf of members of the Garda Water unit.

Why doesn't the OP send an email to the Garda Press Office pressoffice@garda.ie and outline in a rational manner the driving of the Garda vehicle and, whilst acknowledging that Garda vehicle are exempt a lot of provisions of the Road Traffic Act, the fact that they were towing a trailer at a speed exceeding 80km/h (an offence for us mere mortals) and driving continuously in the overtaking lane of a motorway whilst towing a trailer (again another offence) and failing to allow faster moving traffic to pass.

The OP should point out that the driving by these member detract from the otherwise excellent job they do in the Water Unit and is a Public relations disaster. The message will be passed on.

I agree. If the original post is accurate, the poster should email the garda press office with his story.

TheNog

patrickc wrote: »

they had a good laugh today at me and others, and nothing we can do about it.

they were in a marked toyota landcruiser towing an inflatable boat down the M8 (no reg on the trailer either) , they sat at between 100/120kph in the overtaking lane all the way, and would not budge into the left lane at all.

big line of cars behind them and naturally no-one would undertake as it's illegal.
they were laughing in the jeep at us, after the toll I got infront as I have a tag and they sped up to get back infront of me and others again, fun and games for them.
just one question whats the legal speed for towing a trailer?

I don't know if they were radioing in but an unmarked car was there for speeding to, just as the speed changes from 120, to 100 approaching Cork.

anyhow rant over

This sort of crap is not on whether it be intentional or unintentional.

Mister Man wrote: »

Therea bunch of Pricks lads.... My father parked somewhere for 2 mins (im not lying) and the gardi sticks a ticket on the car, or so they say they did,then some idiot women Garda comes to the door of my house, 8a.m On a Sat. Morning and sits on the bell :@ and says heres a ticket for your father, I was like, Yeah sound, Clearly nothing better to do with your time then....

So he went to his friend, whos a garda aswel,and he says he will sort it all out for him, he heard nothing back from him, so he guess he sorted it for him, and next thing he knows theres a thing in the newpaper saying he's going to Jail (lol) for 6 months for not appearing....

Now to wrap this up, He double parked somewhere at 7a.m for a 2 mins, and gets a ticket, and not only that but the gardi clearly had nothing better to do then to go through the trouble to do all of this... Now every day i hear about people getting into fights, robbing, etc... But they stil waste there time with poxy things like these tickets,and i personly think it was odd that the ticket wasnt there, the reminder never came, etc but next thing you know hes failed to appear in court, i think that there actualy getting a kick from all of this, which is sad.....


Anyway i hope i don't sound like im just ****ing on about nothing lol

There is so many things wrong with this scenario. The process of receiving a fixed penalty fine is very different to what you have described. Also your Dad would have received a summons to go to court and there is very little chance of your Dad getting 6 months unless he had a ridiculously long list of traffic offences.

Saab Ed wrote: »

OP the very same thing happened me not so long ago.......

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055471784


I got hammered on that thread by every guard in the country for saying what you just said. They gave every reason in the law why they can do it but none of them explained how and why its safe to do so. Lead by example and all that.......

I have reread most of that thread and you werent hammered, certainly not be me anyway.

patrickc

i would but there was no reg on the car, and i couldnt see a number on it,

and the a4 was briefly beside the garda jeep, mostly he was in front in the overtaking lane

Drummerboy08

"Hey PJ, look at these feckin fools stuck behind us, sure the fella in the A4 is goin mad"

"They can feckin stay there Mick, If I dont get to Centra before 1 O clock I'll crack up. I'm not feckin quein for another roll"


If its true, its a bit of a pisstake. IF its true.