Speed Vans and NCT

sinlessgunner

Hi all,

Really quick question. I think I may have been caught speeding the other day by the Garda speed vans, not the safety cameras but those plain white ones that are on the N4 a bit (first time in 5 years of driving :mad: ) It just so happens that my NCT is also out of date by a few months. Given the very harsh penalties for out of date NCT's, I'm slightly worried that I might be hit for both.

Does anyone know if being caught by those vans would also flag me having no NCT? Really appreciate some feedback.

Thanks

pog it

Doubt it very much! I'm not sure which one caught me a while ago, whether it was Garda one or not, but they didn't pick up my NCT being out anyway.

There were a load of people caught on the N4 bank holiday monday, they had two vans within a short distance of one another on the patch coming in towards the city after Lucan. Needless to say the blue light just kept going off on people

corktina

not yet, but soon....

pog it

corktina wrote: »

not yet, but soon....

soon, what?!

sinlessgunner

Exactly where/when I think I was caught. Pretty sure I was ok for the first van because I was right behind another car who was below the speed limit but I was merging onto the M50 and the limit drops from 80 to 60 just there. Was another van there and I'm pretty sure I was around the 70 mark. I'm not sure whether they got me or not because there was a large volume of traffic at the time. Might have got lucky. How long do the fines normally take to issue?

corktina

pog it wrote: »

soon, what?!

soon they will be able to flag cars with no NCT....:rolleyes:

Atlantic Dawn

corktina wrote: »

soon they will be able to flag cars with no NCT....:rolleyes:

And no tax. Will double the income as over 1 in 10 cars on the roads has no tax. Speeding or not if they are on the road with no tax they can be fined, potential goldmine for the government with minimum investment.

dougie-lampkin

corktina wrote: »

soon they will be able to flag cars with no NCT....:rolleyes:

They're very much "able" to, physically. Why the speed vans aren't doubling as automatic ANPR checkpoints, even just for tax alone, is beyond me. They're ideal for the task.

Grimreaper666

It seems they're not content with robbing the motorists with VRT, excise and VAT on fuel, tolled roads, speeding fines and now it's going to be out of date NCTs. The motorist is easy pickings at every turn but being bled dry at the same time. There will come a day when the government kill the golden goose that is the motorist and it won't be long at the rate they're going.

pog it

sinlessgunner wrote: »

Exactly where/when I think I was caught. Pretty sure I was ok for the first van because I was right behind another car who was below the speed limit but I was merging onto the M50 and the limit drops from 80 to 60 just there. Was another van there and I'm pretty sure I was around the 70 mark. I'm not sure whether they got me or not because there was a large volume of traffic at the time. Might have got lucky. How long do the fines normally take to issue?

It came within a week or so for me so you should get it sooner rather than later if you were over the limit. I think they allow a few kms as a margin of error too.

corktina

Grimreaper666 wrote: »

It seems they're not content with robbing the motorists with VRT, excise and VAT on fuel, tolled roads, speeding fines and now it's going to be out of date NCTs. The motorist is easy pickings at every turn but being bled dry at the same time. There will come a day when the government kill the golden goose that is the motorist and it won't be long at the rate they're going.

In fact it is the people with no tax or VRT paid that are robbing the rest of us and the ones with no NCT are a potential danger to roadusers. Thise who pay their dues have nothing to fear. ANPR set ups at busy intersections in the UK are commonplace, and in my view, the sooner we get them the better.

LLU

I don't see what the speed van would have to do with it.
The authorities already have your NCT information on record and will know whether it has expired or been renewed. And if a guard pulled you over he would be able to determine same by looking at the disk on your windscreen.
It wouldn't make sense to have a system which waited for a speeding ticket / parking ticket / etc before triggering an NCT fine.

Davidth88

I must admit , I find attitudes like the one expressed by Grimreaper66 strange

In my opinion , if a car has no valid NCT ( or booking in near future ) it should be removed from the road and crushed. The insurance should be invalid , therefore you should be done for that too.

Also you should not be able to get tax without a valid NCT.

The NCT is a safety thing , would people rather that anyone could drive a car with bald tyres/lights not working , brakes not functional etc.

I know the NCT isn't perfect ( silly failures for not having your county in Irish springs to mind ), but its the only thing we have to try to ensure that unroadworthy cars are removed from the road.

biko

Get the NCT sorted asap.
Even if they try to do for out of NCT later you can still show that the car is NCT now.
Or just get the NCT done anyway because, you know, you're supposed to.

Grimreaper666

Davidth88 wrote: »

I must admit , I find attitudes like the one expressed by Grimreaper66 strange

In my opinion , if a car has no valid NCT ( or booking in near future ) it should be removed from the road and crushed. The insurance should be invalid , therefore you should be done for that too.

Also you should not be able to get tax without a valid NCT.

The NCT is a safety thing , would people rather that anyone could drive a car with bald tyres/lights not working , brakes not functional etc.

I know the NCT isn't perfect ( silly failures for not having your county in Irish springs to mind ), but its the only thing we have to try to ensure that unroadworthy cars are removed from the road.

I find it strange how willing people are to pay so much in taxes, the concept of taxes originally were only supposed to be a small percentage of a wage, now they're a huge percentage of a wage and a tax on every service and item that we pay for.

I'm not objecting to the NCT as such, my point is just that the motorist is being milked with taxes which are being piled on them at every turn andno doubt more to come. A day will come when the kill the golden goose and as usual they'll just shrug their shoulders and move on to the next cash cow and kill that too.

Anan1

Grimreaper666 wrote: »

I find it strange how willing people are to pay so much in taxes, the concept of taxes originally were only supposed to be a small percentage of a wage, now they're a huge percentage of a wage and a tax on every service and item that we pay for.

I'm not objecting to the NCT as such, my point is just that the motorist is being milked with taxes which are being piled on them at every turn andno doubt more to come. A day will come when the kill the golden goose and as usual they'll just shrug their shoulders and move on to the next cash cow and kill that too.

The fine for an out-of-date NCT isn't a tax.

piston

Grimreaper666 wrote: »

I'm not objecting to the NCT as such, my point is just that the motorist is being milked with taxes which are being piled on them at every turn andno doubt more to come. A day will come when the kill the golden goose and as usual they'll just shrug their shoulders and move on to the next cash cow and kill that too.

I used to think like that but the reality is that motoring has a huge cost to society, the cost to repair the roads far exceeds the amount taken in "road" tax for example. The cost of each serious road accident costs the emergency services a lot of money. The cost of treating respiratory illnesses caused by diesel fumes costs the health services a lot of money. The cost of treating illness caused by lack of exercise (as people insist on driving unbelievably short distances) cost the health service a lot of money. The fact that some people are scared to walk down the road they live on due to high speed traffic and pig ignorant drivers has a negative effect on the quality of life.

I love my car but do realise and accept that it is a luxury good, for which I have to pay taxes to use it and it is also a potentially lethal weapon so an NCT is required to ensure it is in working order and I had to take a driving test to demonstrate my ability to use it in a safe manner.

pog it

Grimreaper666 wrote: »

I find it strange how willing people are to pay so much in taxes, the concept of taxes originally were only supposed to be a small percentage of a wage, now they're a huge percentage of a wage and a tax on every service and item that we pay for.

I'm not objecting to the NCT as such, my point is just that the motorist is being milked with taxes which are being piled on them at every turn andno doubt more to come. A day will come when the kill the golden goose and as usual they'll just shrug their shoulders and move on to the next cash cow and kill that too.

There will always be plenty of pathetic souls happy to pay huge taxes on their fuel and as you have seen, even justify it to themselves. Be careful, some of them might be political party hacks too. And there's that other thing called anger displacement, since they are generally unhappy with their lives they can come on here and have a rant about how not having an up to date NCT means you should be in jail, etc. etc. You've got to feel sorry for them, EXCEPT these are usually the same morons who vote yes to treaties, and vote in the likes of FF and FG. Makes the 'quality of life' just that bit worse for the rest of us, knowing that more than one in 2 is a blind moron.

BrianD

I'm surprised that they haven't started using toll plazas such as on the M50 to check tax and NCT. All have cameras. Not sure if the cameras on the toll plazas where you pay a cashier by hand can read plates.

There are already - I understand - other plate readers around as well such as in Fairview.

Will it a situation that if you get done for speeding that they'll also check the tax and NCT database?

sinlessgunner

Well for what its worth, the reason I don't have an NCT is because someone reversed into the side of my car and damaged the passenger door. It looks crap and sometimes won't open from the outside (probably 1 in every 100 times). To fix this will cost upwards of €200 according to a few quotes. I simply don't have that kind of money to spend at the minute. The car is perfectly road worthy, I keep it well maintained and the tyres, brakes etc etc are all in good working order.

I agree that all cars on the road should be roadworthy and I have no problems with the NCT system in principle. The enforcement of it is an argument for another thread!

wonski

sinlessgunner wrote: »

Well for what its worth, the reason I don't have an NCT is because someone reversed into the side of my car and damaged the passenger door. It looks crap and sometimes won't open from the outside (probably 1 in every 100 times). To fix this will cost upwards of €200 according to a few quotes. I simply don't have that kind of money to spend at the minute. The car is perfectly road worthy, I keep it well maintained and the tyres, brakes etc etc are all in good working order.

I agree that all cars on the road should be roadworthy and I have no problems with the NCT system in principle. The enforcement of it is an argument for another thread!

200E to make it pass NCT isn't that much. I spend more than that every year to maintain a car, and most people do. The NCT is there to make sure every piece of ****e called car is either fixed, or kept off the road. Now you saved 200, but will have to pay 80E for speeding. If you are unlucky in the future to be stopped by guards, you may be summoned, 5 points on your license, and a fine. Do the math.
Don't get me wrong, i know 200E for some people may be a lot, but since you have your NCT out for more than few days, you had plenty of time to think how to do it cheaper maybe?
Finally - in some countries yearly inspection is taken more seriously than here.
UK - tow truck
Poland - vehicle registration documents confiscated, and - if there is visible problem with the car (bald tires, no brakes, lights etc) - tow truck.
Those people have no money, too - but after their car is taken off them, they find them quickly.
Honestly, it is not that difficult to make the car pass NCT, it is part of owning a car, and there is no way around it.