Careful Now

gerrowadat

I guess this may go without saying for people who live outside town and have seen the roads, but here's a little extra warning:

The roads everywhere, especially outside major towns and on minor roads, are absolutely ****e, way worse than last week. Snow does not hold a car on the road :-)

I just drove for 5 minutes before giving up after seeing 2 crashes, a guy being pulled out of a hedge by a tractor, and getting funny looks in a local shop because WTF was I doing driving. I had the luxury of being able to idle in 1st in a 4x4 all the way home, but a '97 Micra with wheels robbed off a BMX wouldn't have made it.

Townie and major roads might be gritted or otherwise thawed due to traffic, but anywhere off the beaten path is treacherous. Please take care this weekend when going out to play, I haven't shot all of you yet :-)

gerrowadat

See www.aaroadwatch.ie and twitter.com/aaroadwatchie for more up to date stuff.

The synopsis from the twitter feed is "It's the apocalypse, stock up on jaffa cakes and start recycling pee".

bogs

You need to come down to carrick on suir over the Xmas and see the state of thr roads with ice.The carpark adjasent to the church which is managed by the Town Council or at least they own the parking metres there was a sheet of glass on Xmas Eve so much so that on exiting you skated out onto the N24 with totally no control and hoped there was no other vehicle coming that would make pulp of you.The Gardai got the carpark closed after some time.Icontacted the RSA,they didnt seem to be bothered about it and said it was up to the local council to look after it.Whats the point in having an organisation sitting on theit TOD if they are not going to act for the safety of the public.

andy_g

careful now

TheDoc

Good post, took me nearly 2 hours to get from malahide to swords, and in a hungover state in flat sole shoes, had to push me Da's car to try give him momentum, it was pretty funny as there was loads of people joining in, and i had to get in the car on the move

But anywhere round me seems to be in ribbons, so I'd imagine roads to HRTA and Red Barn are in a bad state and I'd be very cautios especially going backroads.

Shiva

I just got back from nipping over to the inlaws to check they were all right. Built up area, I'm a very experienced driver, and I was scared witless.

Even if YOU'RE a careful, experienced driver, the other gob****e may not be.

Stay indoors, get drunk, and play xbox.
But not MW2 cos it sucks.

mle1324

Shiva wrote: »

Stay indoors, get drunk, and play xbox.
But not MW2 cos it sucks.

Play the first one,its better:D
Even the roads around Dublin 7 are bad,early this morning a car tried to turn the corner on my road and wasn't successful in doing so,instead it roled back on to the main road even though the front wheels were spinning to go foward and my road is not really a hill.


I suppose in this weather its better to own a 4x4 then a 2 weel drive.

Damo 2k9

Yeh pretty bad around here too, people where trying to get taxis from my house last night too and they couldnt get one, or pull one over, not like taxi men to turn down a fair :P
Seen a few cars in the lidl car park doing hand brakers and 1 of them came very close to going into the wall :pac:

Stone.cold

Shiva wrote: »

Stay indoors, get drunk,

Way ahead of ya ,

but seriously its -4 down here and if the Road doesnt start with a N or M it wont be gritted.

fayer

TheDoc wrote: »

Good post, took me nearly 2 hours to get from malahide to swords, and in a hungover state in flat sole shoes, had to push me Da's car to try give him momentum, it was pretty funny as there was loads of people joining in, and i had to get in the car on the move

But anywhere round me seems to be in ribbons, so I'd imagine roads to HRTA and Red Barn are in a bad state and I'd be very cautios especially going backroads.

HRTA and Red Barn are mostly clear. Swords to the N2 is a nightmare, further east once you reach oldtown the roads clear.

Still be careful!

Hivemind187

I'm right next to the frigging sea and its absolutely white out. Having neary been killed last night in a spin out, yeah, be careful.

Drink > Death.

Decoy

Shiva wrote: »

Even if YOU'RE a careful, experienced driver, the other gob****e may not be.

You got that right. I witnessed a complete muppet today flooring it up a minor gradient in our estate, zig-zagging the whole way up but somehow missing all the parked cars and kids playing in the snow. He then continued to accelerate around a corner, only staying on the road because he bumped off the kerb. As he approached a roundabout he decided to hit the brakes and proceeded to skid through it, barely missing a car already on its way around. This guy wasn't a young lad, he was old enough that he should have known better but still thought he could handle the conditions.

mle1324 wrote: »

I suppose in this weather its better to own a 4x4 then a 2 weel drive.

Most people assume 4x4 offer almost unlimited traction but 4wd is only of any real benefit if there is a decent layer of snow on the road, on ice it doesn't make any real difference if you don't drive correctly in the first place. Don't get me wrong, there's no way I would swap my 4x4 for a 2wd drive vehicle, but as gerrowadat said it's still only safe to idle along in these conditions.



For goodness people, ONLY VENTURE OUT IF YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO AND IF YOU DO PLEASE DRIVE IN AN APPROPRIATE MANNER!

gerrowadat

Cyprinus Carpio wrote: »

Most people assume 4x4 offer almost unlimited traction but 4wd is only of any real benefit if there is a decent layer of snow on the road, on ice it doesn't make any real difference if you don't drive correctly in the first place. Don't get me wrong, there's no way I would swap my 4x4 for a 2wd drive vehicle, but as gerrowadat said it's still only safe to idle along in these conditions.



For goodness people, ONLY VENTURE OUT IF YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO AND IF YOU DO PLEASE DRIVE IN AN APPROPRIATE MANNER!

+1. The only thing a 4x4 gives you is a better ability to idle along, and less crumple damage when you hit things :-) (I went partially into a hedge last week, the road was that slippy that I was able to get out and push it out onto the road again).

senordingdong

This is great.

Get to stay in now watching dvds, playing video games and ridin the hand off myself and no-one can say ****.

gerrowadat

I've been doing that since tuesday. Epic.

gungun

senordingdong wrote: »

and ridin the hand off myself and no-one can say ****.

thats ****ing brilliant:pac:

edit: (to stay on topic)
was in the car to ballygar a few days ago, down the little backroads, passed a volvo that must have gone way to fast and ploughed into a hedge, i had no idea the roads were so bad till i saw that

ED E

Lads, on your bikes, loads of fun and no chance of writing off an expensive car.

zero19

Great chance of writing yourself off though

ED E

zero19 wrote: »

Great chance of writing yourself off though

Well if the trip home last night was anything to go by no. This may sound nuts but I find I have better balance on a bike than on my feet.

That said, one particular intentional drift did end with me hitting(unitentionally) a friend. Pleased she was not when picked up out of the snow:o

Stonewolf

Just been down the shop (Finglas to nearly Phibsborough because local shops were all closed) on my motorbike and it's a bit dicey out there aye, bloody Ambulance nearly ran me over with his tailgating.

deco nate

jayus,either your mad,or you HUGE balls,gonnin out on a moterbike with the roads that icey,maddness just glad ya made it home safe,crazy evenin goin out in a car,but on a motorbike,feckin hell, had a lot of my mates hurt from crashin bikes,its not nice vistin them in hosiptal,and they all happened jurnin summers,no one i know would risk it in winter,least not the way the roads are now,thank your lucky stars,and maybe next time,leave the bike at home,if not for you,for your family

Damo 2k9

Was walking to charlestwon earlier on aswell, and i was walking past a garage and it looked like a chap on a motorbike that was coming into the garage came off because 2 other people were helping him out.
Bit dodgy to be going out on a bike alright.

Lemming

Goes without saying to drive carefully if you have to drive at all; so plus one to Gerrowdat's advice. I wouldn't trust the gritting in Ireland. At all. My most vivid thought (and memory) of Irish gritting is two lads stood on the back of a truck with shovels throwing grit out onto the middle of the road where it gets missed by most traffic resulting in sod all benefit.

I've been driving in nutty conditions in England & Scotland since the 20th December and covered well over 500km of driving in the last couple of weeks. Would I do it again? Erm, some of it I would have to have been paid to do again. As Shiva said about himself; I am a fairly experienced driver with some clue as to how to drive in snow conditions in a 2WD and I was scared sh*tless when attempting to drive over the Appenines on the 20th December in weather I can only describe as "abandon your car" weather.

And yet, in all that blizzard I saw some of the most appalling driving I have ever witnessed. And almost all muppets in 4WD thinking themselves invulnerable whilst attempting to do what can only be described as reckless driving of the worst kind,

fayer

Lemming wrote: »

I wouldn't trust the gritting in Ireland. At all. My most vivid thought (and memory) of Irish gritting is two lads stood on the back of a truck with shovels throwing grit out onto the middle of the road where it gets missed by most traffic resulting in sod all benefit.

+1 Wasn't a grain on any of the roads around Swords. Hit black ice after i dropped Doc and Niall home this evening, nice little sideways movement.

MacAonghusa

One good thing about this weather is that it may teach some of the more impatient, idiotic & aggressive drivers some humility. It ain't difficult to drive in this weather, all it takes is an ounce of cop on.

OzCam

MacAonghusa wrote: »

...all it takes is an ounce of cop on.

Ah, see, there's the problem, right there.