[Media] Fined for stopping on M11 hard shoulder

jd

From the Wexford People
(First time I've seen this)

Fined for stopping on M11 hard shoulder

STOPPING on the hard shoulder of a motorway earned a Ballycanew motorist a fine at Gorey District Court last week.
Jerry Cash (45) of Old Factory House, Wexford Road, Ballycanew, was not in court to answer the charge of stopping on the M11 motorway at Tinnock, Gorey, on November 5 last year.
Garda McGrath said he saw the car parked in the hard shoulder at 3 p.m. on the day in question.
Judge O Buachalla imposed a €200 fine.

-Corkie-

Thats no harm. There was a very bad accident on the M7 the other evening where a truck parked on the hard shoulder was hit by another travellling in the same direction.

GTE

So he just parked up or was there a problem with the car?
What on earth would make someone think that parking on a motorway would be a good idea.

-Corkie-

bbk wrote: »

What on earth would make someone think that parking on a motorway would be a good idea.

Have you forgotten what country you live in??:p

Zulu

taking a phone call?

GTE

-Corkie- wrote: »

Have you forgotten what country you live in??:p

Yes oddly. The North is diluting the ****e things about southern roads.
I best head back for some carmageddon!

EDIT:

Dear Jaysus actually! I just remembered heading up from Dublin earlier in the week. I saw a person do a U turn over the grass on the A1.
Overtaking lane SLAM ON BRAKES turn and GO GO GO GO!!

andyseadog

jd wrote: »

From the Wexford People
(First time I've seen this)

I reckon this might have something to do with the massive motorway lay by near Tinnock on the M11, which the driver must have totally ignored to park on the hard shoulder.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Nissan doctor

Zulu wrote: »

taking a phone call?

I'd be worried by your post that you think that is an accecptable reason to stop on a motorway:rolleyes:


Its simply an article about a [URL="javascript:void(0);"]gard[/URL] doing his job, it is illegal to stop on a motorway, for ANY reason other then an unforeseen emergency.

You can even be fined if you run out of petrol and stop, as this is your fault and entering a motorway knowing you will have to stop is also illegal

Tallon

Saw a van 'parked' (No driver) on the cross hatch of the N3 Slip road onto the M50

Zulu

Nissan doctor wrote: »

I'd be worried by your post that you think that is an accecptable reason to stop on a motorway:rolleyes:

No I just take the call while barreling down the fast lane at 115kmph with my fog lights on. :eek:

Others deem it perfectly acceptable. That and toileting themselves or their offspring.

Nissan doctor

Zulu wrote: »

No I just take the call while barreling down the fast lane at 115kmph with my fog lights on. :eek:

Others deem it perfectly acceptable. That and toileting themselves or their offspring.

At least your not speeding:P

Frank Black

Is there some rule that you're supposed to notify the gards if you do break down on the motorway, even if it's a puncture and you're changing it yourself?
I've had a couple of punctures over the years that I had to change on the HS of a motorway - never very pleasant, but is it illegal if you haven't called the gards about it?

Caliden

He didnt even show up to his own court case which shows lack of respect or acknowledgement that he was wrong.
He couldve got off if he showed up and had a valid reason why he was parked up

Zulu

Nissan doctor wrote: »

At least your not speeding:P

...it was the M50!!!!! :eek:

AugustusMinimus

While I fully accept that no one should be parking in the breakdown lane of a motorway, I simply can't fathom how a person can hit a person parked in the breakdown lane.

1. You'd have to be driving in the breakdown lane.
2. You'd want to be blind not to see the car in the lane ahead of you.

What kind of drivers do we have in this country at all.

Guy:Incognito

Saw something that made me smile today.

Was coming off the M50 Southbound at Tallaght when a young bloke in a golf van comes diving across 2 lanes and across the hatchings at the last second between me and a Panda behind. There was about a car and a half lenght of a gap he threw himself in to.The guy in the Panda flashed and I could see the bloke in the Golf and his girlfriend in the passenger seat laughing and thinking this was all great craic. He then proceeds to take up a position in the middle all the way up the slip till the guy in the Panda picked his lane, at which point the Gold dives across to stay ahead of him, again thinkign this is great craic. So I stop in the left lane behind a red BMW and the guy in the Golf is in the right lane alongside the BMW. Next thing the window of the BMW goes down and an arm holding a Garda badge comes out He told the guy to pull off left down towards spawell and pull in. Well done Garda.

time lord

I do some work on motorways for a couple of local authorities and its one thing I really hate. Its horrible parking up and expecting to be rear ended or something. I blame half of it on the sky programmes where its motor madness for the whole show:D The van is lit up like a Christmas tree but when you open the rear doors all the high viz stuff disappears and inbetween doing everything correctly you are very vunrable.

Met a fellow sunbathing on a towel in front of his car in the hard shoulder once. Pervy, mad or nuts I still can't figure out.

Recent stops have been to a dead calf, a full car door (glass intact) in white stripe area of merger lane, a horse box with one missing wheel, fast food signs along the edges, 5 12 foot banners from some fly-overs, countless badgers and some metal information signs well into the grass verges that still got walloped. Can never figure the last one. Happens every so often. There big, up high and off the edge by 2-3m's easy. Maybe truckers falling asleep and having a wobble or something. Theres not always skids or such before the signs too. My own version of crop circles maybe;)

corktina

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

While I fully accept that no one should be parking in the breakdown lane of a motorway, I simply can't fathom how a person can hit a person parked in the breakdown lane.

1. You'd have to be driving in the breakdown lane.
2. You'd want to be blind not to see the car in the lane ahead of you.

What kind of drivers do we have in this country at all.

3 have a blow out
4 go to sleep
5 swerve to avoid a hazard

Terrontress

I have heard it said in the past that vehicles on the hard shoulder act as a distraction and people subconsciously drift towards it.

There is a high death toll amongst motorway workers, including breakdown workers.

The advice, if you have to stop, is to vacate the car and stand well away. Several womens' groups in the past have commented about feeling vulnerable outside of their cars if they break down but the AA said that the chance of serious injury on the hard shoulder is much higher than the chance of being assaulted so get out of the car, leave the passenger door unlocked, lock all others and only get back in if you feel threatened.

Seth Brundle

Captain Morgan wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

The N3 and N2 are not motorways so you are allowed to stop on the HS.

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

What kind of drivers do we have in this country at all.

0.01% those who understand how to drive and consider other road users, lane management, etc.
99.9% crap drivers

Berty

kbannon wrote: »

99.9% crap drivers

98% of drivers are selfish and do what they want though irrespective of knowing the rules or laws.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Slig

You can literally spend hours on many of these motorways and motorway driving isnt exactly exciting, people will enivetably have to stop to eat, rest, make phone calls, relieve themselves or even just adjust their seats. I know its illegal and stupid to stop on the hard sholder of a motorway but there should still be an alternative.

I drive a truck and the lack of lay-bys on our motorways is daft. Its alright having off-carrigeway services for cars but how many have adequate room to turn an artic and how far do you have to go to get back on the road again? Just as an example, between Donabate(M1) and Limerick (M7) there are only 2 lay-bys

slimjimmc

Slig wrote: »

You can literally spend hours on many of these motorways and motorway driving isnt exactly exciting, people will enivetably have to stop to eat, rest, make phone calls, relieve themselves or even just adjust their seats. I know its illegal and stupid to stop on the hard sholder of a motorway but there should still be an alternative.

I drive a truck and the lack of lay-bys on our motorways is daft. Its alright having off-carrigeway services for cars but how many have adequate room to turn an artic and how far do you have to go to get back on the road again? Just as an example, between Donabate(M1) and Limerick (M7) there are only 2 lay-bys

There is already an alternative, all those things you describe can be done after taking the next exit off the motorway and finding a more suitable stopping spot nearby. Our motorway exits are quite close and certainly a lot closer spaced than any proposed motorway service stations would be.

None of those reasons you mentioned are justification for stopping in the h/s of a motorway. People just can't be bothered to take a small detour.

Slig

Off-line service stations are grand but the NRAs policy of not providing lay-bys on motorways and dual carriageways was daft. I agree that service stations arent needed along the motorway but lay-bys should be provided every 30Kms. all thats needed is a strip of tar-mac seperated from the main carriageway by an arm-co barrier.

I have never stopped on the side of a motorway or dual carrigeway but every night I see trucks parked at the end of slip roads or on the wider hard shoulders taking their rest periods because either the few lay-bys there are are completely full or they have no way of getting back onto the motorway if they leave it.

I agree that parking on the side of a motorway is stupid and dangerous but did the NRA not see this happening when they decided that, although every other country does it, they should not provide adequate rest areas on motorways.

Nissan doctor

Jese lads, we aren't in america, there is never more the a few KMS to the next exit in Ireland so no reason not to pull off the motorway if you have to stop for some reason.

Its for the above reason that we don't need laybys or much in the way of motorway services. No where in Ireland is far away IMO

jd

Slig wrote: »

I agree that parking on the side of a motorway is stupid and dangerous but did the NRA not see this happening when they decided that, although every other country does it, they should not provide adequate rest areas on motorways.

http://debates.oireachtas.ie/TRJ/2010/12/01/00005.asp

Interesting comment Fred Barry made about service areas...

As regards service areas, it would certainly have been better if they had been developed with the motorways. The legislation is important, I am afraid, because we are completely constrained in what we can do. If there is not a statutory provision to the effect that we can do something, we cannot do it. Until the legislative change was made in 2007, the NRA had no authority and could not have developed service areas.

In other words politicians were lobbied so that the NRA could not develop service areas...

But when people complained to politicians about the lack of service areas the pols blamed the NRA

rameire

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

While I fully accept that no one should be parking in the breakdown lane of a motorway, I simply can't fathom how a person can hit a person parked in the breakdown lane.

1. You'd have to be driving in the breakdown lane.
2. You'd want to be blind not to see the car in the lane ahead of you.

What kind of drivers do we have in this country at all.

Did a truck not plow into another truck that was parked on the hard shoulder on the M7 last week.
the road was closed for half a day because of it.

Frank Black

Having been involved in road design particularly on the inter-urban motorway network for over 10 years I think the main problem w.r.t. motorway service areas was political interference.
When the inter-urban were being planned there was a big lobby from business groups in the towns and villages which the original national roads were passing through - they feared (probably correctly) that the removal of passing trade would have a devastating effect on local businesses.
In order to re-assure these people the government decided to build the motorways without service areas, effectily forcing drivers to divert to local towns if they needed fuel/food/rest etc.
Fast-forward 5 years and the fact that there is nowhere to stop on the motorway network becomes an obvious problem - hence the introduction of lay-bys. Lay-bys are not suitable for motorways, but the inter-urban's were originally designed as 'High Quality Dual Carriageways' (HQDC's) - so they are allowed to be design and constructed. Sometime later it is decided by Government to upgrade all these HQDC's to motorways - in many cases signs have to be changed to blue, line markings altered and speed limits increased. It becomes apparent that the lay-bys designed and constructed are not suitable - basically the problem is they do not have enough of a merge length to allow traffic to build up to motorway speed prior to entering the mainline flow. A lot of these lay-bys have now been gated to prevent people for accessing them (as on stretches of the N7) although I know some are still open - hey, this in Ireland - hope you're not expecting consistency.
Fast forward another couple of years and the inter-urban are all open -drivers become p:ssed off at the fact they have to divert to local towns and representations are made to politicians about motorway service areas.
At great expense some service areas are retro-fitted into the existing motorway network.

Moral of the story - politicians are incapable of long-term thinking - they only care about the next election - I think we all know this by now and the county has paid for this in more serious ways than the 'service area' debacle.

Kintarō Hattori

black francis wrote: »

Is there some rule that you're supposed to notify the gards if you do break down on the motorway, even if it's a puncture and you're changing it yourself?
I've had a couple of punctures over the years that I had to change on the HS of a motorway - never very pleasant, but is it illegal if you haven't called the gards about it?

A good question which I'd like to know the answer to as well.