Pensioner driving wrong way on dual carriageway

MarkR

I met him on the way home friday evening, just outside shannon. Girl in work said her fiance saw something in the paper about it. Any one see the article?

Clareman

Unfortunately this is a common occurance on most dual carriage ways around the country

http://www.live95fm.ie/news/news-item/30-drivers-every-month-drive-wrong-way-towards-the-limerick-tunnel/584f73a7-aacb-4fda-966d-5ee64e34f349

Balagan

MarkR wrote: »

I met him on the way home friday evening, just outside shannon. Girl in work said her fiance saw something in the paper about it. Any one see the article?

Report at the end of this article http://www.independent.ie/national-news/woman-19-killed-after-driving-car-into-city-centre-wall-in-early-hours-3003048.html

golden8

Its also not on dual carriageways, ok its not as dangerous but I have seen last week a guy trying to get into Shannon Skycourt via the exit barrier. My partner was overtaking a car on the Limerick tunnel and saw oncoming traffic on the overtaking lane and he had to do evasive action otherwise he would not be here today. You have to have your wits about you.

Balagan

And this from 6 Jan 12

Motorists Have Lucky Escape On M18
http://www.clareherald.com/news/52-local/3685-motorists-have-lucky-escape-on-m18.html

I've met two, one near Shannon and one on bypass link to Lahinch Road. It's an awful feeling!

5h4mr0(k

MarkR wrote: »

I met him on the way home friday evening, just outside shannon. Girl in work said her fiance saw something in the paper about it. Any one see the article?

I met him myself. Just barely missed hitting him. I think he hit a bus on the way.

Taceom

Before Christmas I met an elderly woman coming against me on the M7 as I was heading towards Limerick. I only avoided a collision with her by inches. I got such a fright, but the poor woman seemed totally oblivious to the chaos she was causing. I think that maybe all these new roads are very confusing to the elderly.

CptSternn

Stats show in America drivers over 65 cause more deaths and accidents than drunk drivers.

Yet there is a total void when it comes to laws trying to address this.

I think they should implement laws to deal with this with the same veracity they have addressing drink driving.

Ellis Dee

This one ended badly for both the elderly driver and the young woman whose car she collided with.:(

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/offaly-inquest-woman-66-drove-8km-down-wrong-side-of-motorway-before-fatal-accident-3003728.html

Stripey Cat

I saw someone try to drive across O'Connell Bridge against the traffic the other evening.

Stripey Cat

Ellis Dee wrote: »

This one ended badly for both the elderly driver and the young woman whose car she collided with.:(

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/offaly-inquest-woman-66-drove-8km-down-wrong-side-of-motorway-before-fatal-accident-3003728.html

She was drunk, as far as I know. Something that presumably accounts for lots of these incidents.

Clareman

There's an inquest into the cause of the accident, lets not speculate as to the cause, but as you said, there are a lot of factors at play in accidents.

crazyguy01

I drive the M18 regularly after dark and this has happened to me(car going the wrong way in my lane) at least 3 times in the last year. Very scary and all you can do is hope they are aware and not under the influence, etc.

Balagan

Clareman wrote: »

There's an inquest into the cause of the accident, lets not speculate as to the cause, but as you said, there are a lot of factors at play in accidents.

The link that Stripey Cat shared is a report of the inquest which was held today and widely reported.

Stripey Cat

She was drunk, wasn't she? That's been reported in the press and on the news.

Downplaying this factor is silly and dangerous.

Clareman

I didn't edit out any link out of any posts, there is an ongoing legal investigation into the cause of the accident so we will not allow speculation into the cause of the accident, if you want to provide links to external sites as to the cause of the accident please feel free, don't just speculate on what is "widely believed".

Stripey Cat

Here is the first sentence of the news report above:

AN OFFALY Inquest has heard a 66-year old woman, who had high levels of alcohol in her system, drove 8km down the wrong side of the Galway/Dublin motorway before being involved in a fatal crash.

I wonder what the cause of the accident was. I guess we should be sensitive to the feelings of drunk drivers everywhere, and not speculate.

User Friendly

Clareman wrote: »

there is an ongoing legal investigation into the cause of the accident so we will not allow speculation into the cause of the accident,

What is the other legal investigation into the accident?

the cause of the accident was reported on the RTE main evening news,

Clareman

I mis-understood the article, sorry Stripey Cat, I have restored your posts to their originals now

Stripey Cat

No worries Clareman. This aspect of the story was somewhat glossed over in many reports. The media in Ireland often downplay the role of alcohol in road accidents and I mistakenly believed you were also going down this route.

So, sorry from me too.

Sterling Archer

Here's a video from a boardsie posted a while back

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGJbrt_LJ7Y

angryoffaly

<mod snip>

the drifter

Hi angryoffaly and welcome to the Midwest/Clare forum. I've edited the post as outbursts like that with comments like "burn in hell" well there not really whats considered appropriate for the forum.

Here is the forum Charter Charter

Here are the boards.ie posting guidelines Guidelines

I suggest you have a read of both and we welcome your contribution to the forum

angryoffaly

Will re phrase that.

angryoffaly

Perhaps i should have not used these words.Just pretty sickened by this story.No justice for the young woman but do think something must be done in the way Gardai deal with this situation they have no training in stopping drivers like this.Gardai can only use stingers in extreme circumstances (What do you call this case Normal) ive heard and only under orders from there superiors.They should all have one in there vehicles but they don't.Whats the RSA opinion on this?

Balagan

Not all of the facts of this inquest were reported in all of the media and the fuller reports make very frightening reading http://www.herald.ie/news/woman-drinking-before-fatal-8km-wrongway-drive-3004185.html

Both the off duty and on duty Gardai seem to have made very valiant efforts to stop the driver and it would indeed make you wonder if they shouldn't have the stinger as mentioned or some method of disabling the car. Shooting out the tyres would do it but arming the Gardai doesn't find universal favour. However, it seemed it would be the only thing to have worked in this awful case.

DarkJager

Any motorist with even a bit of sense would try to get off the road (at leastthe hard shoulder and out of traffic) immediately if they ended up on the wrong side of a motorway or dual carriageway. There is no excuse regardless of age for anyone who continues driving when the flow of traffic is clearly against them.


I think the only solution for these "ghost" drivers is an immediate life ban from driving. They are clearly no longer able to operate the vehicle or navigate the roads safely and it's better to be safe than sorry.

angryoffaly

DarkJager wrote: »

Any motorist with even a bit of sense would try to get off the road (at leastthe hard shoulder and out of traffic) immediately if they ended up on the wrong side of a motorway or dual carriageway. There is no excuse regardless of age for anyone who continues driving when the flow of traffic is clearly against them.


I think the only solution for these "ghost" drivers is an immediate life ban from driving. They are clearly no longer able to operate the vehicle or navigate the roads safely and it's better to be safe than sorry.

I agree it should be a life time Ban.In this case i dont think age had anything to do with what this old woman did she was hell bent on Hitting another vehicle.But old people should be made go back and do there Test again there where no motorways before 1985 i think in ireland.

Taceom

DarkJager wrote: »

Any motorist with even a bit of sense would try to get off the road (at leastthe hard shoulder and out of traffic) immediately if they ended up on the wrong side of a motorway or dual carriageway.

That sounds ok in theory, but in the case where I met the elderly woman coming against me on the motorway - she was on the overtaking lane and with all the oncoming traffic trying to avoid her they were all staying on the inside lane therefore stopping her from moving in there and onto the hard shoulder.

golden8

DarkJager wrote: »

Any motorist with even a bit of sense would try to get off the road (at leastthe hard shoulder and out of traffic) immediately if they ended up on the wrong side of a motorway or dual carriageway. There is no excuse regardless of age for anyone who continues driving when the flow of traffic is clearly against them.


I think the only solution for these "ghost" drivers is an immediate life ban from driving. They are clearly no longer able to operate the vehicle or navigate the roads safely and it's better to be safe than sorry.

That's all very well in theory but when it happens to you each situation is different, like I mentioned before in this post my partner was overtaking and there was a ghost driver coming towards him. Luckily enough the car that he was overtaking seen what was happening and moved into the lane and my partner was able to go into the driving lane.

There was a Ghost driver in Junction 13 of the Ennis bypass the driver was on a bend. You would not have seen that ghost car and it was a fatal accident. It was not through the fault of the person in the correct side but you would not see the car in time as it was on a bend coming up from a dip to Tulla Rd Junction (J13).