New penalty point offences

Jimdagym

slimjimmc wrote: »

I have, plenty of times, 10 minutes max on the MeganeII.
Not comfortable, not easy, a lot of fumbling around but definitely doable and (despite popular myth) does not require tools of any kind or removing wheels. Driver side easier.

If it is taking you 10 minutes to change a bulb on a megane II, it would take you most of winter to change one on a megane III or IV.

mcwhirter

vetstu wrote: »

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/report-govt-mulling-new-penalty-point-offences-533979.html

16 new offences planned, including one point on the spot for a faulty light.
That should have been in the first round of them anyway? Leo is also thinking about increasing points for speeding and using the phone.

Bit unfair for on the spot fine for a faulty light. I've been stopped in britain before for this and they give you 14 days to get sorted and you need to bring a stamped form to the police station from a garage to prove light has been fixed.

tayto lover

I am all for road safety and keeping speed and dangerous driving down BUT these measures are only for generating fines to help the economy. They cannot be serious about these measure and safety while they are running down the Garda Traffic Corps at the same time.

Jimdagym

mcwhirter wrote: »

Bit unfair for on the spot fine for a faulty light. I've been stopped in britain before for this and they give you 14 days to get sorted and you need to bring a stamped form to the police station from a garage to prove light has been fixed.

Can you fix the bulb yourself nd just get the garage to stamp a form? Does the garage charge for the stamp?

mcwhirter

Jimdagym wrote: »

Can you fix the bulb yourself nd just get the garage to stamp a form? Does the garage charge for the stamp?

I'd say that is possible, and just get them to check it works. I was only charged 2 quid!, most garages should do it for nothing as it only takes seconds.

Seth Brundle

Jimdagym wrote: »

Can you fix the bulb yourself nd just get the garage to stamp a form? Does the garage charge for the stamp?

Before you start getting worried, maybe wait and see what exactly the proposed rule exactly will be

TestTransmission

kbannon wrote: »

Before you start getting worried, maybe wait and see what exactly the proposed rule exactly will be

I think this is the best idea

Pataman

corktina wrote: »

"tightening up seat belt laws for children in commercials"

Kids will have to wear seatbelts on TV??:eek:

Jimdagym

kbannon wrote: »

Before you start getting worried, maybe wait and see what exactly the proposed rule exactly will be

Lol, not worried, just curious how that system worked.

puppetmaster

I agree that they shouldn't give an on the spot fine for a light that has just blown on the journey, But lets be honest whats the lightlyhood of being stopped within the hour of your bulb blowing? you should have to produce the car at a Garda station.

There are a huge amount of cars going around with one headlight, I counted 9 in town the other day on a 5 minute drive to the shop and back. It is also much more dangerous to be travelling at night on a road @ 100kph with one headlamp working Wheather the reduction in your visability or the reduction in your car being visable its Asking for trouble. And many people dont see it as a priority to change it. There is no penalty for doing this, yet someone who has been a month late in paying the Government €500+ on their tax will get fined and if left longer could face confiscation of the vehicle. How is this focused on safety?

Im far from a supporter of making up nanny laws to create revenue, But some are blatently obvious.

Del2005

Just seen a car this evening with 2 bright lights, on the offside. Nearside was totally dark.

They should just make in compulsory to carry spare bulbs. Get stopped with a light out and no spare, penalty points. If your carrying bulbs get a 4 day producer at a Garda station of your choice, 2 weeks is too long for cyclops cars

The EU should make it law that a bulb can be changed at the side of a road, their quick enough to meddle with stuff that has no benefit to the motoring public this would be of benefit.

jimmynokia

Scraping the barrell here to create cash
I heard on the new there will be a dirty window fine ffs wake up leo,and as for the bulbs they can go any time cop, the fcuk on varadkar

Absurdum

This is the usual bull****, be seen to be doing something rather than addressing the chronic lack of enforcement of basic road safety laws.

Regarding the headlight thing, how about if someone is stopped, the incident is logged by the Garda and if they are stopped again with the same light not working within a certain period (say 72 hours?), they receive a fine and/or a point.

bigroad

There is a lot of cars ,van, and jeeps with blown indicator bulbs.for some reason front and back on the same side seem to blow at the same time.

Guy:Incognito

Owen wrote: »

I think they're referring to the new models which require quite a lot of labour to even get at the light, let alone change the bulb.

Nope. The Megane II is the one that started all this nonsense of peopel reckoning it take an hour and half the car has to come apart. Hence that 5th gear video with the AA "expert".

It's a fiddly job yes, but nothign that cant be done as described by SlimmJimc.

Jimdagym wrote: »

If it is taking you 10 minutes to change a bulb on a megane II, it would take you most of winter to change one on a megane III or IV.

A Megane IV? We are already assuming it will take ages in a future car?:)

Absurdum wrote: »

Regarding the headlight thing, how about if someone is stopped, the incident is logged by the Garda and if they are stopped again with the same light not working within a certain period (say 72 hours?), they receive a fine and/or a point.

72 days maybe, but the chances of anyone being stopped for a blown light once at any time are slim. Nevermind twice in 72 hours.

jimmynokia wrote: »

and as for the bulbs they can go any time cop, the fcuk on varadkar

and if you keep spares in the car you can fix them anytime.

Why is the attitude here always one to give out. Why not just have a solution ready and it will never affect you. Not to mention the added bonus (a bonus in Ireland rather than an accepable norm) of having all your lights working.

robbie_998

faulty lightbulb ?

hello fiat punto :pac:

ScouseMouse

corktina wrote: »

"tightening up seat belt laws for children in commercials"

I can't think of any commercial reason why a child should be in a commercial anyway.

I sometimes take my 8 year old to work with me in my commercial. There's one.

Anyone know what they are getting at on this one about children in commercials?

SAHMOM

Jimdagym wrote: »

That doesn't really cover it. You need to remove the light units on a focus to change a bulb. The battery has to come out for the front passenger side.
Impractical, but a "produce the car to your Garda station to show the bulb was changed within a week" would be a much fairer route to take.

So agree with above....for small things like bulbs blown while on a trip when you mightn't have noticed there should be a time period to correct it....Am I right on saying you'll also get points if your windscreen isn't clean???? My water ran out today and didn't get a chance to fill it till I got home!!!

scotty1

Jemmy;Eh are they going to be ergonomically assessing all drivers?!



Was this not enforced already?

I have great respect for the bigger bike owners of which I had one myself a long time ago they take great pride in their machines and keep within the law its some of the smaller powered ones who need some road manners I will include pedal power also. So Jemmy I hope you are correct on this one.:(

maxer68

I can't see why so many people were getting worked up on this today.

Gardai are human. If you have manners, are decent, and your car is in good nick, they will ahrdly give you a ticket for one bronken light if you assure them you'll fix it next day.

If you are pig ignorant, don't give a toss and your car is already in bits, then they should give you points as you are a danger to other road users.

Also, the reason why there are so few checkpoints these days is becasue over 140 garda traffic cars are fitted with technology that reads 5 number plates a second and gives them immediate info on insurance, tax & nct.

As a good few people just before Rathcoole found out yesterday morning in a blitz on the N7 - load of cars & vans towed away leaving motorists standing.

SAHMOM

superscouse wrote: »

I sometimes take my 8 year old to work with me in my commercial. There's one.

Anyone know what they are getting at on this one about children in commercials?

By law no child is allowed in the front seat of a car until they are 12 years of age or to a certain height, which I think is 150cm (don't quote me on that)
Until they are of the height or age they need to be in some kind of booster seat, hard back booster or just the booster seat.
Reason being, if in an accident and the belt is not in the right poistion, can cause serious injuries or worse fatal!
Children by law are noy permitted to be in the front passenger seat of ANY vechicle, wether the air bag is turned off or not, for safety also.
Hope that cleared it up.

ScouseMouse

SAHMOM wrote: »

By law no child is allowed in the front seat of a car until they are 12 years of age or to a certain height, which I think is 150cm (don't quote me on that)
Until they are of the height or age they need to be in some kind of booster seat, hard back booster or just the booster seat.
Reason being, if in an accident and the belt is not in the right poistion, can cause serious injuries or worse fatal!
Children by law are noy permitted to be in the front passenger seat of ANY vechicle, wether the air bag is turned off or not, for safety also.
Hope that cleared it up.

Oh sheet.

She does have a booster seat, so is she, or isnt she allowed in a transit connect?

Cedrus

I saw a guy in a big merc heading into the Jack Lynch Tunnel this morning, every time he touched his brakes, the right brake light and the left reversing light came on (not a broken lens, it WAS the reversing light, I checked when we stopped at the lights). Presumably the opposite happens when he reverses. I can only think that he mixed up the caps when he replaced the bulbs and didn't check the result, even if a garage did it he should have checked. That he was not aware of it is worthy of more than just points. Does driving with his head up his @rse qualify as no good view through windscreen + defective light?

For the next 1.5 hours of wet mucky driving at least 1 in 10 cars had no lights on, 1 in 20 had only sidelights and god did those silver ones need to have them on. The 5 who thought they were grand safe drivers doing 60-80 on a 100kMph national road were ALL unlit.

Coming home the traffic was lighter and more sensible but the van with the stargazy light and the bleeps who couldn't find the dip switch, broke the monotony........................and the starlet full of young wans on their way to a night out, and the barsteward who wanted to tailgate me but wouldn't pass.............

Irish Steve

To get an idea of the problem with defective or inappropriate lights, try this.

At night, as cars pass in the opposite direction, start counting. If a car comes towards you with a defective light, or inappropriate lights, (e.g. fog lights on when not foggy, sidelights only), restart from 1.

Most trips, you will not get above 10, especially on busy commuter routes near Dublin, it's worse where there are huge numbers of street lights, as when headlights fail, the driver isn't massively inconvenienced, whereas in rural areas, one headlight is downright dangerous, it can mean the difference between a pothole and the ditch.

the carp about not being able to see rear lights so diificult to check is just that

It's very easy to see if a rear light is working by reversing close to something lijke a garage door, or a wall, and then looking to see if the reflection of the light can be seen in the door, wall, or whatever.

I'd be VERY happy to see penalty points for inappropriate use of front and rear fog lights.

I'd also like to see lighting checks enforced more rigidly on "professional" drivers. It should be mandatory for a professional driver to check lights at the start of each duty period, and if they're faulty, then the vehicle should be fixed before use. Another thought is that all professional vehicles, including vans, should be required to be fitted with a hands free phone device, so there is no excuse for the driver to ever have to use a mobile in hand.

LIghts on a trailer that don't work, that should be a point for each bulb that's not working correctly.

There was a time when bulbs blew regularly. Now, it's a lot more rare, and before too long, as LED lights become more widely used, in most cases, they should last the life of the vehicle.

It's mandatory to carry a set of spare bulbs in some of the EU countries, and reality is that most bulbs can be changed in a very short time period, so the whinges about an hour to change bulbs is exactly that, a whinge. Another suggestion is that Mr Varadkar might not do any harm by insisting that filling stations start stocking things like bulbs for vehicles, given that many of them are more interested in selling non motoring items.

Reality unfortunately is that this will be abused, and not correctly enforced, like most of the other regulations.

I wonder what will happen if a member of AGS is driving a squad car with a defective light? That could get "interesting";)

Cedrus

Del2005 wrote: »

They should just make in compulsory to carry spare bulbs. Get stopped with a light out and no spare, penalty points. If your carrying bulbs get a 4 day producer at a Garda station of your choice, 2 weeks is too long for cyclops cars

The EU should make it law that a bulb can be changed at the side of a road, their quick enough to meddle with stuff that has no benefit to the motoring public this would be of benefit.

This makes a lot of sense. Although, even if you have bulbs and an easy car to do the change, What if - it's dark, it's raining, you are vulnerable, you have to collect your child before x o'clock, you don't know how? In any just society, there has to be leniency or else a proof of negligence before a prosecution of any sort is advanced.

MugMugs

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Nope. The Megane II is the one that started all this nonsense of peopel reckoning it take an hour and half the car has to come apart. Hence that 5th gear video with the AA "expert".

It's a fiddly job yes, but nothign that cant be done as described by SlimmJimc.

Didn't they service a golf in the same amount of time? Do you think an average Joe Soap could manage it on the road side?

Alfasud

Its all a moneymaking exercise no matter what they say. The Garda speed van is a very lucrative ''toll''.

matt70iu

lomb wrote: »

I keep telling my brother to NCT his car, its 3 years overdue:rolleyes:
He gets stopped by the cops occasionally, they check his tax and sometimes his tyres(he always makes sure his tyres are good in any case) and send him on his way. Never mention anything about an NCT.

Um...I'm amazed your brother hasn't gotten a letter from his insurance company. They have access to the NCT database and are now actively refusing to insure cars with no NCT.

Owryan

Thinking behind the new proposals is very commendable . Enforcing them is a whole diff story . Looks like the politicans will make the law and then expect the gardai to work miracles enforcing them.

I do a round trip carlow/kilkenny every day often twice a day and plenty of cars about with blown or faulty lights . What are the chances they will be caught.

Never see gardai on the road anymore and nothing at all over the christmas. They can add all the penalty point offences they like but if the gardai arent out there catching offenders then people will continue to take chances.

For example look at how many people still use their phone while driving. I easily pass a dozen or so every day .

MugMugs

matt70iu wrote: »

lomb wrote: »

I keep telling my brother to NCT his car, its 3 years overdue:rolleyes:
He gets stopped by the cops occasionally, they check his tax and sometimes his tyres(he always makes sure his tyres are good in any case) and send him on his way. Never mention anything about an NCT.

Um...I'm amazed your brother hasn't gotten a letter from his insurance company. They have access to the NCT database and are now actively refusing to insure cars with no NCT.

Any links to back that up? New to me. I thought they operated on the merit of utmost good faith?