Bad driving.

Trevor Kent

Hi all,

Is anyone else fed up with the standard of driving in Ireland and the lack of punishment of non speeding offences. Be it middle lane motorway drivers, one speeders (the people who drive at 80kph on main roads, and continue at the same speed when going through town), the anti-indicator brigade, tail gaters, roundabout lane changers ( the ones who when going straight cant stay in their own (left) lane but have to do a Jenson button on it, mid roundabout and drift into the right lane for the racing line lol).....and so on and so on.

Traveling from Wexford to Limerick last week, caught up on a guy doing between 80 and 90 kph on a decent road. There was no opportunity to pass and in fairness he wasnt crawling so I hung back, I mean he was just being a careful driver..right?

So we came into the next town, 60kph and then 50kph. I slow down.....but our guy keeps ploughing on at the same speed. I catch up with him at a round about with no indicator on but in the right lane. He proceeds to take the second exit (straight on) with not an indicator in sight, same for the next round about. He does use his indicator when turing right into a filling station (guy in mid 40s, well groomed)

Just one example of crap I see every day. And i would like to see the stats on how many penalty points are dished out for non speeding offences.

Not taking anything away from speeding (it does affect the outcome of an accident) but its just one of many many types of bad driving.

Rant over.......

Full_TiltKeith

The Guards do publish figures for FCO.

http://www.garda.ie/Controller.aspx?Page=138

You should get a good snapshot there.

Also if the driving is that bad call traffic watch.

Trevor Kent

Full_TiltKeith wrote: »

The Guards do publish figures for FCO.

http://www.garda.ie/Controller.aspx?Page=138

You should get a good snapshot there.

Also if the driving is that bad call traffic watch.

Cheers for that, ill have a look.

But if I rang traffic watch and said " i just seen a guy speeding (even though I cant verify it with a reading), repeated use the wrong lane on a round about and same for indicators, how much would they care????
Actually, next time I will ring them and see what sort of response I get.

Full_TiltKeith

Trevor Kent wrote: »

Cheers for that, ill have a look.

But if I rang traffic watch and said " i just seen a guy speeding (even though I cant verify it with a reading), repeated use the wrong lane on a round about and same for indicators, how much would they care????
Actually, next time I will ring them and see what sort of response I get.

I called them once about someone driving dangerously, (speeding and overtaking on a blind bend) as far as I know the phones are manned by civilians and the person on the other end was pretty emphatic, however I have no idea if anything was done.

Maybe one of the members of AGS could clarify?

JustAddWater

tell me about it

Roundabout etiquette is gone to ****e in this country

Last week a van driver, therefore a "professional driver" in my opinion, twice drifted into the right lane at 2 short spaced roundabouts. He was in the left lane to go straight and I in the right to go right. I had to almost stop on the roundabout because he was coming into my right lane on top of me "professional" driver?? more like professional idiot

Now yesterday and today again on roundabouts I noticed some 40ft trucks on my left not properly stopping for me as I have right of way. nearly killing me!!!! If i'm hit I haven't a hope against a truck

Trevor Kent

Full_TiltKeith wrote: »

The Guards do publish figures for FCO.

http://www.garda.ie/Controller.aspx?Page=138

.

Points stats for this year. Every month so far this year up to July, Speeding fines have been issued far more (on average double if you look at the totals) often than every other offence put together (not including mobile phone and seatbelt)

FCN 2011

Month Speeding Mobile Seat Belt Other* Total
Jan 19,531 3,068 1,230 15,204 39,033
Feb 29,918 3,022 1,190 13,513 47,643
March 23,741 3,053 1,704 13,783 42,281
April 22,956 2,927 1,614 12,943 40,440
May 19,768 2,043 1,016 10,149 32,976
June 22,419 2,758 1,397 11,352 37,926
July 22,292 2,719 1,426 12,003 38,440
Aug
Sept
Oct
Nov
Dec
Total 160,625 19,590 9,577 88,947 278,739

TwoShedsJackson

Trevor Kent wrote: »

Cheers for that, ill have a look.

But if I rang traffic watch and said " i just seen a guy speeding (even though I cant verify it with a reading), repeated use the wrong lane on a round about and same for indicators, how much would they care????
Actually, next time I will ring them and see what sort of response I get.

They won't care at all, it's really dangerous driving they're interested in.

Speeding is obviously an offence, but not knowing how to use a roundabout properly is just being ignorant of the Rules of the Road, and indicators are optional; you are not legally required to use them.

Trevor Kent

JustAddWater wrote: »

tell me about it

Roundabout etiquette is gone to ****e in this country

Last week a van driver, therefore a "professional driver" in my opinion, twice drifted into the right lane at 2 short spaced roundabouts. He was in the left lane to go straight and I in the right to go right. I had to almost stop on the roundabout because he was coming into my right lane on top of me "professional" driver?? more like professional idiot

I see it every day, how hard is it to stay in your own lane. But by drifting lanes, it looks like you are going "around" the round about instead of straight through, confusing the schnit out of a guy/gal waiting to come onto the roundabout at the exit your leaving.

Another one that happened recently. I was in a line of traffic, moving pretty slow (60-70kph on a 100kph road). No opportunity to pass as there is only one lane and to the right, your "hatched" area which it is obviously an offence to drive on. Next I see an elderly guy passing us all out (about 10-12 cars) on the hatched area but not blazing past. Id guess traveling at about 80-90 kph, coming up to a sweeping left hand (where incidently, the road opened up into two lanes anyway meaning his dangerous manouver wasnt needed if he was patient)
He was at the time of the manouver, driving against on-coming cars (2 lanes of em) not a bother. NUTS!

markpb

Ringing Traffic Watch seems to be a bit of a waste of time. They take your complaint, fax it to the Garda station closest to the incident and, at some stage, someone will read the fax, call you back and ask you if you'd like to a make a statement. If you do, they contact the other driver, take a statement from them and then pass the whole lot to (I think) the DPP. In the unlikely event that the DPP decide to press charges, you'll have to make a statement in court about what you witnessed and the court will decide which of the two of you are more believable.

Trevor Kent

markpb wrote: »

Ringing Traffic Watch seems to be a bit of a waste of time. They take your complaint, fax it to the Garda station closest to the incident and, at some stage, someone will read the fax, call you back and ask you if you'd like to a make a statement. If you do, they contact the other driver, take a statement from them and then pass the whole lot to (I think) the DPP. In the unlikely event that the DPP decide to press charges, you'll have to make a statement in court about what you witnessed and the court will decide which of the two of you are more believable.

But as TwoSheds says above, if its not dangerous driving, they probably wont be interested.

But id like to see more or a Garda presence on the roads. There are plenty of speed cameras around these days, but feck all cop cars patroling the roads.

Voodoomelon

I had a laugh out loud moment at the weekend just gone.
Got stuck waiting to enter the Avenue Road roundabout in Dundalk for an unusually long amount of time (about 50-60 seconds) and got to watch about 40-50 cars drive through the roundabout ALL OVER the place.

Virtually no one was indicating, those that were were indicating completely incorrectly, people were crossing lanes without looking in mirrors, crossing lanes and cutting people up, sitting in the wrong lane for the wrong exit, going straight through the roundabout as if there was no lanes at all etc etc etc.

Really, incredible stuff, absolutely appalling.

IrishZeus

TwoShedsJackson wrote: »

and indicators are optional; you are not legally required to use them.

Is this true....?! :eek:

paulmclaughlin

JustAddWater wrote: »

If i'm hit I haven't a hope against a truck

Only one thing to do. Buy a bigger truck.

Full_TiltKeith

IrishZeus wrote: »

Is this true....?! :eek:

....If you fancy flapping your right hand out the drivers window.

dr.fuzzenstein

I don't know if police presence alone will do it.
In Germany you can go for days without seeing a single patrol car on the roads, here you meet 2-3 every hour.
In comparison Ireland is crawling with cops.
Problem is that no one cares, least of all the cops.
And a lot of people where brought up by their parents to believe that they are the center of the universe and nothing and no one else matters.
In other countries, people obey the rules as a matter of course, these rules where decided upon for the greater good and are there to help us all.
The idea here is "why should I have to obey the rules? What's in it for me? How do I get around it? This inconveniences me and causes me hassle, is there anybody looking? great, go for it"
Except in most cases they don't care who is looking.
And if they are pulled up over it, chances are they might get aggressive and even violent.
It just seems a cultural difference.
Also, a lot of people where taught to drive by the same people who brought them up.
Uh oh.
Of course the Irish solution to any problem is "If we ignore it, it will go away"
And there will be no enforcement because if you pull people over for being ignorant and incompetent on the road it costs time, money, effort and doesn't bring revenue.
Plus, if you're a Gard, you wouldn't want your breakfast roll to get cold and you could probably do without the hassle.
Most cops on the continent are known for a severely bad attitude, inability to make friends, complete absence of a sense of humour and compulsion to stick their noses into absolutely everything and anything. Try to intimidate one of them and you will find yourself in two worlds at once. One of pain and one of trouble.
Cops here seem to fulfill a more decorative roll in comparison.

Trevor Kent

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

I don't know if police presence alone will do it.
In Germany you can go for days without seeing a single patrol car on the roads, here you meet 2-3 every hour.
In comparison Ireland is crawling with cops.
Problem is that no one cares, .

Hit the nail on the head there me thinks. No consideration for fellow road users. But people dont understand that if they were more considerate, traffic would flow a bit better.

Also, im all for people driving as fast or as slow as they like within reason, but if you want to drive at 70kmph in a 100kmph and you see a LINE of cars behind you, please pull over and let everyone by.

Actually, no one who needs to read this is going to be lurking around the motoring forum are they.........

TwoShedsJackson

IrishZeus wrote: »

Is this true....?! :eek:

It is, they have no bearing on right of way so if, for example, you were waiting at a T junction to turn out onto the main road, and I come along from your right, indicating left to turn into the road you're on - if you assume I am turning left due to my indicator and pull out in front of me and I go straight into you, you'd be at fault for not yielding to traffic on the main road.

Similarly when you're changing lanes on a motorway or whatever, putting on your indicator confers no right of way, you still have to yield to traffic already in the lane, not that you'd know that from the driving habits of many an Irish driver.