M50 crash 15th Nov

sirpsycho

Does anyone else wish the Gards would release the names of the people who cause accidents? Surely it would reduce the amount of stupid driving people do on the M50.

M50 a few mins ago:
http://yfrog.com/j2g2tbj
(No shortage of rubber neckers!)

http://twitter.com/?photo_id=1#!/Dessmyth/status/136361320047054848/photo/1

Cookie_Monster

could easily use 100-200m of hard shoulder there to ease congestion...

keep 2 lanes moving rather than one, why no common sense used? Short section means it can still be cleared instantly if more ES vehicles arrive.

Lapin

Its the gobshítes on the opposite carriageway slowing down to have a gawk that annoy me. The first image above clearly shows this carry on.

RichieD

Dont you think losing their cars and getting serious injuries is punishment enough already?

seamus

sirpsycho wrote: »

Does anyone else wish the Gards would release the names of the people who cause accidents? Surely it would reduce the amount of stupid driving people do on the M50.

In order to avoid being sued for defamation, the Gardai would need to be 100% sure that the person named, did actually cause the accident. By the time legal blame could be properly assigned, the incident is forgotten about and naming them would be pointless.

I would however like to see an "idiot's list" published each year of the full name & address of everyone convicted of drink-driving, driving without insurance and dangerous driving.

foggy_lad

Lapin wrote: »

Its the gobshítes on the opposite carriageway slowing down to have a gawk that annoy me. The first image above clearly shows this carry on.

These dangerous fools should be caught on camera and given 4 points and a €1000 fine in the post.

Run_to_da_hills

sirpsycho wrote: »

Does anyone else wish the Gards would release the names of the people who cause accidents? Surely it would reduce the amount of stupid driving people do on the M50.

Thats what the courts and press are there for. The only problem is that it may take several months or years before the outcome.

BrianD

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

could easily use 100-200m of hard shoulder there to ease congestion...

keep 2 lanes moving rather than one, why no common sense used? Short section means it can still be cleared instantly if more ES vehicles arrive.

That would be a dangerous move - the hard shoulder is required for emergency vehicles at all times.

What is an ambulance passing through to another destination needs access? It's not unusual in a situation like this for a second incident to occur because people are distracted or unsure what they are doing.

Having said that, I think the Gardai certainly need more training on how to manage traffic on motorways in the event of incidents. Look how the fire tenders are positioned compared with the Garda vehicles.

sirpsycho

sirpsycho wrote: »

Does anyone else wish the Gards would release the names of the people who cause accidents? Surely it would reduce the amount of stupid driving people do on the M50.

They generally do when they are charged. And then a conviction confirms it.

Surely you wouldn't want names of who caused the accident released before a full investigation is carried out?

murphaph

BrianD wrote: »

That would be a dangerous move - the hard shoulder is required for emergency vehicles at all times.

What is an ambulance passing through to another destination needs access? It's not unusual in a situation like this for a second incident to occur because people are distracted or unsure what they are doing.

Having said that, I think the Gardai certainly need more training on how to manage traffic on motorways in the event of incidents. Look how the fire tenders are positioned compared with the Garda vehicles.

You're wrong here Brian.

The Gardai should indeed use both lane 1 and the HS to keep traffic moving in an incident like this. It's a very short stretch and with plenty of Gardai standing about there's more than enough manpowere there to quickly halt traffic in the HS if it's needed by an emergency services vehicle.

The greater danger in not doing so is that congestion will quickly back up to previous junctions and emergency service vehicles will not even make it on to the motorway due to this.

pclive

Fire tenders are parked like that to create a safe working environment for the fire brigade members this is normal operating procedure

zagmund

Not everyone is rubbernecking. Some have slowed their progress deliberately - it's called adjusting your speed according to the conditions.

If there has been an accident in the opposite carriageway, there is a significant chance that there will be debris on your side also.

It may be minor debris and may not cause an accident, but it is prudent to slow down and make sure you don't run over something that will cause you to lose control and crash.

z

p.s. addmittedly, most of them probably are rubbernecking or are busily trying to make sure that the rubberneckers don't crash into them while rubbernecking, taking photos and tweeting updates.

BrianD

murphaph wrote: »

You're wrong here Brian.

The Gardai should indeed use both lane 1 and the HS to keep traffic moving in an incident like this. It's a very short stretch and with plenty of Gardai standing about there's more than enough manpowere there to quickly halt traffic in the HS if it's needed by an emergency services vehicle.

The greater danger in not doing so is that congestion will quickly back up to previous junctions and emergency service vehicles will not even make it on to the motorway due to this.

I don't believe so - any docs to show that this is or isn't best practice or procedure. I would be happy to revise position. For some reason the Gardai did not open the HS.

Tarabuses

BrianD wrote: »

I don't believe so - any docs to show that this is or isn't best practice or procedure. I would be happy to revise position. For some reason the Gardai did not open the HS.

Because they hadn't been trained to do so?

murphaph

BrianD wrote: »

I don't believe so - any docs to show that this is or isn't best practice or procedure. I would be happy to revise position. For some reason the Gardai did not open the HS.

IMO the Gardai are very poorly trained wrt road traffic scenarios compared to other forces. I've seen Gardai closing lanes for fender benders-in the UK they pull offending vehicles to the hard shoulder with the squad car-they don't wait for the fire services etc. unless there are casualties inside the vehicles.

The UK priority (in the absence of serious injury) is pretty much always to get the lanes cleared asap. This level of urgency is rarely if ever seen on Ireland's motorways. (I was a motorcyclist who commuted on the M50 daily for years-as such you get to see the accident scene most of the time as you can filter forward to the front of the jam).