Operation slow down

POGAN

Another road policing op, the GC said every Resouce will be used, so ok fair enough go safe out same as every day, garda gatso van out same as every day. Problem is that less traffic on the ground couple reasons
1, less members in traffic corp
2, lack of traffic cars and bikes, I think I have seen 1 new bike for 2011 none for 3 years before



Gardaí to crack down on speeding

A high-profile Garda campaign to get motorists to curb their speed will be held this weekend.

Operation Slow Down will target driver behaviour and attempt to get road users to stick to appropriate speed limits.

From 7am on Friday, a 24-hour high visibility campaign will be held to raise awareness of the dangers of excessive speed.

A total of 96 people have been killed in road crashes so far this year, with 25 in June.

Another 97,000 drivers were detected for speeding offences.

Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan said a speed limit is not a target.

“What we are dealing with here is people’s lives,” he said. “We are forever asking people to co-operate with us on a variety of issues, particularly around crime prevention and reduction. But road traffic accidents and reducing fatalities are just as important.”

Launching the operation with the Road Safety Authority (RSA), the commissioner warned gardaí will be using all available manpower and technology in their arsenal during the operation.

RSA chief executive Noel Brett said the death toll in June was catastrophic. “That level of carnage was not seen in almost two years,” he added. “I’m also concerned about the number of pedestrian and cyclist fatalities which show a marked increase on this time last year.”

Statistics show Friday and Saturday are the most dangerous days on the road and July and August the peak time for crashes.

Gardai said a 1 per cent reduction in speed will also lead to a 4 per cent drop in fatal collisions, they added.

Gda Derek Cloughley, of the Road Safety Unit, said if a driver travelling at 100km/h slowed down to 90km/h it would add just six minutes to a journey. “What are you going to do in six minutes, make a cup of tea?” he asked. “But by reducing your speed by 10km/h, it significantly increases your chances of surving

goldie fish

Derek makes tea very slowly...

cocoshovel

goldie fish wrote: »

Derek makes tea very slowly...

He makes a good cup you mean.

Pappa Charlie

Unfortunately, I think the satistics are starting to turn in the wrong direction again as many members expected, depletion of resources is starting to be reflected in road deaths and it will only get worse. What can you expect when traffic cars are being taken to give to district HQ's as replacement cars and traffic members are being put back on regular units. Operation slowdown is a result of operation rundown!

POGAN

Pappa Charlie wrote: »

Unfortunately, I think the satistics are starting to turn in the wrong direction again as many members expected, depletion of resources is starting to be reflected in road deaths and it will only get worse. What can you expect when traffic cars are being taken to give to district HQ's as replacement cars and traffic members are being put back on regular units. Operation slowdown is a result of operation rundown!

It was going to happen traffic has being giving cars out to regular units for last 3 years

New rosters with extra unit have taken a lot off traffic around the country.

It's going to effect the road deaths

kub

I suppose the bottom line so is, whats cheaper? A depleted traffic corp or peoples lives.

It is so obvious now to any motorist, the fact that the traffic corp are no longer around, therefore old habits are back.

cocoshovel

kub wrote: »

I suppose the bottom line so is, whats cheaper? A depleted traffic corp or peoples lives.

It is so obvious now to any motorist, the fact that the traffic corp are no longer around, therefore old habits are back.

I actually see the traffic corps quite a good bit. I know of at least 3 different cars covering 2 stations 15km from each other, and there is probably more than that. One of these stations is the one that made the news last year over having "0" vehicles for the traffic corps officers

POGAN

cocoshovel wrote: »

kub wrote: »

I suppose the bottom line so is, whats cheaper? A depleted traffic corp or peoples lives.

It is so obvious now to any motorist, the fact that the traffic corp are no longer around, therefore old habits are back.

I actually see the traffic corps quite a good bit. I know of at least 3 different cars covering 2 stations 15km from each other, and there is probably more than that. One of these stations is the one that made the news last year over having "0" vehicles for the traffic corps officers

Mallow ?

kub

cocoshovel wrote: »

I actually see the traffic corps quite a good bit. I know of at least 3 different cars covering 2 stations 15km from each other, and there is probably more than that. One of these stations is the one that made the news last year over having "0" vehicles for the traffic corps officers

Are you sure that the officers driving these traffic cars are actual traffic corp members?
Just my local station inherited a traffic car, it is now used as a regular patrol car, i can just imagine the mileage on it.

Ps My own opinion is based on daily driving around 3 different divisional areas on a daily basis. I have also noticed quite a lot of TC cars parked up in the yard behind my own divisional HQ, it does not seem to be at any particular time, on average it is both day and night, just goes to prove the officers are no longer available to drive them.

Helix

POGAN wrote: »

Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan said a speed limit is not a target.

is the speed limit not the speed determined by the state as the maximum safe driving speed on a given stretch of road? surely that in itself would suggest that it's a perfectly safe speed to be driving at in good conditions?

cocoshovel

Mallow ?

Nope

kub wrote: »

Are you sure that the officers driving these traffic cars are actual traffic corp members?
Just my local station inherited a traffic car, it is now used as a regular patrol car, i can just imagine the mileage on it.

Well that is possible as Ive seen them on a few backroads, but most of the time they're manning checkpoints or doing something involved with the road. 1 of these vehicles is the utility jeep, the other being the ford Galaxy, and the third I know of is just a regular ford or toyota, not sure which one.

wicklaman83

POGAN wrote: »

cocoshovel wrote: »

kub wrote: »

I suppose the bottom line so is, whats cheaper? A depleted traffic corp or peoples lives.

It is so obvious now to any motorist, the fact that the traffic corp are no longer around, therefore old habits are back.

I actually see the traffic corps quite a good bit. I know of at least 3 different cars covering 2 stations 15km from each other, and there is probably more than that. One of these stations is the one that made the news last year over having "0" vehicles for the traffic corps officers

Mallow ?

It was Thomastown. Dont know why you couldn't say it in post above

cocoshovel

Saw another one today, so that makes it at least 4. Silver toyota.

wicklaman83 wrote: »

It was Thomastown. Dont know why you couldn't say it in post above

It was. I dont really feel like directly giving out my location on here, but its pretty obvious if one is willing to search. Between Thomastown and Kilkenny city station there seems to be a moderate enough sized traffic corps, and I know for sure they'll be out tomorrow all over.

Rawhead

There is definitely a greatly reduced traffic corp presence on the roads these days. I notice that they seem to spend an inordinate amount of time transporting people to prison if anything.

One of the big mitigating factor that is keeping RTA's low is that the amount of cars on the road is so few compared to a few years ago.

kub

Rawhead wrote: »

There is definitely a greatly reduced traffic corp presence on the roads these days. I notice that they seem to spend an inordinate amount of time transporting people to prison if anything.

One of the big mitigating factor that is keeping RTA's low is that the amount of cars on the road is so few compared to a few years ago.

Excellent post, bang on. So it will be all hands on deck at 7am, now I wonder, by the time Monday morning comes around, how many new patrol cars will the lads be able to afford with all those extra €50 notes?

I have also noticed as well that the Traffic cars are also involved in the cash escorts. Something I know used to be done by the regular 'spare' patrol car, obviously a thing of the past.

kwalshe

I drive approx 1500k a week all over the country. I have noticed a massive drop in the presence of Traffic Cars on the road. I did nearly 1700k last week and did not come across 1 garda car or speed check on the road.
People are noticing it too. I was in a group of people yesterday and a large percentage of the group commented that you can nearly drive as fast as you want in certain places / road stretches now because there is no garda ever on the road.
The topic came up when we were talking about our own local station that used to have 3 Garda cars and now only has 1 , basically that is 1 car for covering east Carlow (Tullow , Ballon , Rathvilly, Hacketstown, Myshall, Kildavin). It is a crazy situation

Mycroft H

So much for a high profile presence. I drove 200 miles today on major commuter routes and the only place I spotted a squad car was passing Tallaght, but that was probably Tallaght rather then "operation slow down"

cocoshovel

BX 19 wrote: »

So much for a high profile presence. I drove 200 miles today on major commuter routes and the only place I spotted a squad car was passing Tallaght, but that was probably Tallaght rather then "operation slow down"

Yep. Didnt see a single car today, and was expecting a checkpoint in a few of the usual places they do them. Well there's still the whole weekend

kwalshe

cocoshovel wrote: »

Yep. Didnt see a single car today, and was expecting a checkpoint in a few of the usual places they do them. Well there's still the whole weekend

I think it only on for 24 hrs

From 7am on Friday 6th July to 7am on Saturday 7th July, An Garda Síochána, along with other stakeholders, will run Operation "Slow Down”. The objectives of the Operation are to raise awareness of the dangers of inappropriate and excessive speed, reduce the number of speed related collisions, and therefore save lives and reduce injuries on our roads.

Medic475

Same with me today, not a single car to be seen, no checkpoints, nothing!

kub

Medic475 wrote: »

Same with me today, not a single car to be seen, no checkpoints, nothing!

Me too, I clocked up 220k today on familiar roads both primary and secondary going through 2 divisions.

ivabiggon

kub wrote: »

Me too, I clocked up 220k today on familiar roads both primary and secondary going through 2 divisions.

god 220k, that was fast, what you driving a delorean???? :-)

kub

ivabiggon wrote: »

god 220k, that was fast, what you driving a delorean???? :-)

No a Renault , what I meant to say was 'travelled'

bfocusd

I seen a few cars out today, one in naas town, another on the naas road, but the main one o noticed was on the blessington road towards saggart, the usual red undercover Mondeo that's around south Dublin, it had a head on collision with another car and to myself look like they were the cause of it!

Michael Weston

kub wrote: »

Rawhead wrote: »

There is definitely a greatly reduced traffic corp presence on the roads these days. I notice that they seem to spend an inordinate amount of time transporting people to prison if anything.

One of the big mitigating factor that is keeping RTA's low is that the amount of cars on the road is so few compared to a few years ago.

Excellent post, bang on. So it will be all hands on deck at 7am, now I wonder, by the time Monday morning comes around, how many new patrol cars will the lads be able to afford with all those extra €50 notes?

I have also noticed as well that the Traffic cars are also involved in the cash escorts. Something I know used to be done by the regular 'spare' patrol car, obviously a thing of the past.

Fifty quid ? I wish, I got one through the post Friday morning for €80 doing 71kph in a sixty zone. It's a main road loads of room and a good straight stretch. If I went the windy back road its an 80kph zone . The limits on some of the decent roads are ridiculous and I often think its purely for revenue generating.

Preset No.3

Drove to Cork tonight, saw 2 traffic corps cars had pulled over people Dublin bound around the Cashel area. Apart from that, I have seen nothing and Ive been driving around all weekend.

ivabiggon

kub wrote: »

No a Renault , what I meant to say was 'travelled'

Ah!! so your a bit of a traveller, no wonder you were never pulled???? :cool:

kub

ivabiggon wrote: »

Ah!! so your a bit of a traveller, no wonder you were never pulled???? :cool:

Don't be silly 'travellers' don't drive Renaults, honestly boss.

Mr Simpson

bfocusd wrote: »

I seen a few cars out today, one in naas town, another on the naas road, but the main one o noticed was on the blessington road towards saggart, the usual red undercover Mondeo that's around south Dublin, it had a head on collision with another car and to myself look like they were the cause of it!

I assume there are a few unmarked red mondeos around dublin, I say this because I was turning right onto a one way street and came very close to having a head on collision with one that was going the wrong way with no blues and twos.

(On-Topic) I saw no sign of operation Slowdown at all, in fact I saw less of a Garda presence than usual.

Iwannahurl

How many Traffic Corps or general AGS officers might have been engaged in Operation Slow Down?

According to AGS, in the first 9 hours of Operation Slow Down, 33000 vehicles were monitored.

Traffic Corps numbers are in the region of 950 at present, it is reported. If we assume, purely for the sake of argument (:)) that 500 of them were on detection duty around the country between 0700hrs and 1600hrs, then each TC member monitored a grand total of 66 vehicles. In the course of nine hours! That's less than 8 vehicles monitored per hour per Garda.

Unless my sums are way off, in which case please set me right.

Iwannahurl

Iwannahurl wrote: »

How many Traffic Corps or general AGS officers might have been engaged in Operation Slow Down?

According to AGS, in the first 9 hours of Operation Slow Down, 33000 vehicles were monitored.

Traffic Corps numbers are in the region of 950 at present, it is reported. If we assume, purely for the sake of argument (:)) that 500 of them were on detection duty around the country between 0700hrs and 1600hrs, then each TC member monitored a grand total of 66 vehicles. In the course of nine hours! That's less than 8 vehicles monitored per hour per Garda.

Unless my sums are way off, in which case please set me right.

No insights forthcoming on this one either?

goldie fish

Thats feckin fantastic figures there. A detection every 10 minutes!

Iwannahurl

You don't say.

They'd get a detection every ten seconds on the 50 km/h streets in my neighbourhood.

goldie fish

Iwannahurl wrote: »

You don't say.

They'd get a detection every ten seconds on the 50 km/h streets in my neighbourhood.

And how would they process them? How long do you think a detection takes?

Iwannahurl

goldie fish wrote: »

And how would they process them? How long do you think a detection takes?

Ten minutes, on a good day, reportedly.

Can you define "detection"?

goldie fish

A detection is an offence detected, and the culprits details processed for prosecution.

Ten minutes is fine if its all no tax, but s49 or no insurance will take a bit longer than 10 minutes per detection.

Iwannahurl

goldie fish wrote: »

A detection is an offence detected, and the culprits details processed for prosecution.

Ten minutes is fine if its all no tax, but s49 or no insurance will take a bit longer than 10 minutes per detection.

Operation Slow Down was targeted at speeding.

How long does it take to detect a speeding offence?

goldie fish

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Operation Slow Down was targeted at speeding.

How long does it take to detect a speeding offence?

Depends on if the culprit is caught by a mobile unit, or a stationery one. (Not including the Mobile camera vans).

If a Garda on an operation concentrating on speeding offences detects a S49, or any other road traffic offence is he supposed to ignore it?

Iwannahurl

goldie fish wrote: »

Depends on if the culprit is caught by a mobile unit, or a stationery one. (Not including the Mobile camera vans).

If a Garda on an operation concentrating on speeding offences detects a S49, or any other road traffic offence is he supposed to ignore it?

I have no idea.

OSD was targeted at speeding. If the Garda officers detailed to carry out that 24-hour operation were also tasked to detect other offences such as drink driving, Motor Tax, insurance, NCT, seatbelts, vehicle defects and so on, that would presumably reduce the potential number of speeding detections, simply due to pressure of time.

In which case, it is misleading for AGS to claim that the total of "only 45" speeding detections indicates "a significant reduction in speed across the road network during the operation".

The clear implication of that statement is that speeding detections would have been higher if more motorists had been speeding, whereas you seem to be suggesting that the number of speeding detections is strongly influenced by workload (ie detecting other offences also).



.

goldie fish

Come to think of it, having considered what you have to say....

go blow a goat.
I don't care what your agenda is. I'm not feeding you any more.
Troll.

Iwannahurl

goldie fish wrote: »

go blow a goat.

I don't care what your agenda is. I'm not feeding you any more.

Troll.

I reckon the toys-thrown-out-of-pram (TTOP) quotient in the Emergency Services forum must be one of the highest on Boards.

Even higher than Motors perhaps.

And you're not even a colleague...

Harry Bosch.

You have to way up the amount of members on regular duty compared to those assigned to OSD or any other operation. If and how many extra members were brought in just for OSD and for no other purpose. I will say that whilst setting up a check point and whilst conducting a checkpoint that calls still come in and some calls are far more serious than a checkpoint. If regular beats and cars are not tied up they can be tasked to assist / be the checkpoint, but calls still come in and members on checkpoint duty no matter what the operation they are on will respond. Would you want the station/ 999 control to say that no one is available because cars are busy conducting a checkpoint? I would not. There is no money for extra Guards, overtime, cars and funding for specialized operations is low, but in this climate members are having to do frontline duties along with these operations, and they do it quite well..

Iwannahurl

In which case, is the total of "only 45" speeding detections due to "a significant reduction in speed across the road network during the operation" or due to AGS officers having to do multiple duties simultaneously with diminished resources that are inadequate because of cutbacks?

Iwannahurl

I originally thought that Operation Slow Down was a 24-hour escalation of current levels of speed surveillance:

The Garda Commissioner continued that the feedback from members of the Garda Traffic Corps across the country would indicate a significant reduction in speed accross the road network during the operation.

However, unless I'm reading this latest News Release incorrectly, it turns out that the surveillance was done by GoSafe safety camera vans:

It is much to early to have the full picture on the operation however a preliminary review indicates the following.

From 7am on Friday 6th July to 7am on Saturday 7th July, a change in the driving habits of the public was obvious to those carrying out the operation.

This was borne out by analysis of the data gathered throughout the period.

Over 75,000 vehicles were monitored by the GoSafe safety camera vans over the 24 hour period. Out of this number, 154 motorists were detected speeding. This figure is significantly less than would be expected for a similar period, typically where there would be in the region of 300 detections. There have been changes in driver behaviour in safety camera zones and this has resulted in the percentage of road fatalities in zones dropping from an average of 31% during the years prior to the project commencing, to a figure of 18% in 2011.

More than half of the two to three hour monitoring periods ended with no speeding detections. (Typically 5 to 6 detections are encountered during each session).

Or is that just separate GoSafe data, used as an example of reduced detections?