Operation Slow Down

Markiemarkso

Drove from Sligo to Galway this morning, no garda or speed vans to be seen.
It would be nicce to see Operation backroads for a change though.

manutd

Seen a Garda with handgun, standing behide a sign to hide. He was standing about 10meters before you go in to a 80 km/h from a 60km/h zone. It is a good piece of road, hard-shoulder, living around here for 8 years never seen an accident or heard of one on it.

But on the way home on a roundabout a NI female driver, well she didn't even brake or slow down. She was taking the first exit off. What happened, she went into a car also coming off the roundabout but was only doing around 40km/h.

I pulled over, the female NI driver was not keen on staying. the Garda came about 40mins later. Ambulance had alright come and gone, thankfully there was no injury. But the first car was smashed badly behind.

The funny thing about it was the Garda who was doing the speed check, was the one who came. Took him 40mins, but you could walk it in 10mins, and he had a squad car as well. So basically checking speeders on a safe road is more important than an accident?

Bandara

manutd wrote: »

Seen a Garda with handgun, standing behide a sign to hide

now thats zero tolerance !

Jimmy Bottlehead

Seen a Garda with a speed gun on the Ballymun on-ramp to the M50 this morning. Never ever seen one there before.

In fairness to him, he was pointing the gun AWAY from the traffic, so you'd have to ignore the Garda jeep and speed PAST it for them to catch you.
Pointless operation, but at least he gave people a chance.

Sids Not

Driving around soutd dublin all morning..not only did i not see any speed traps...i didnt even see a garda car ....

Too wet i suppose...:p

christmas2012

At least it got people talking and thinking about the speed they do which they dont in their day to day routine of im not going to die driving..and theres so many road deaths :pac:

The other day i was driving there was a guy behind me in a jeep,he overtook me on a bend facing into oncoming traffic,the car on the other side of the road had to last minute pull into the hard shoulder and beeped and flashed his lights at the guy overtaking,listen..if that guy on the opposite end of the road was not paying attention it could have been a head on collision..

Atomic Pineapple

christmas2012 wrote: »

The other day i was driving there was a guy behind me in a jeep,he overtook me on a bend facing into oncoming traffic,the car on the other side of the road had to last minute pull into the hard shoulder and beeped and flashed his lights at the guy overtaking,listen..if that guy on the opposite end of the road was not paying attention it could have been a head on collision..

And targeting speeding would have prevented that near miss how?

piston

draffodx wrote: »

And targeting speeding would have prevented that near miss how?

It is my suspicion that the government here have taken the attitude that accidents will always happen and if we slow things down, they won't be as serious.

christmas2012

draffodx wrote: »

And targeting speeding would have prevented that near miss how?

he was going fast,before he got to where i was in the road,i was miles ahead of the guy,he passed about 5-6 cars in a row at speed.with speed you give yourself less time and room to manouvre or slow out of a hazardous situation in the road,lets say there was a horse in the road,which happened to me once,coming out from limerick near a halting site a few horses broke loose,and one crossed the road right in front of me,if i was going fast,me and the horse would have been killed..so speed does matter..

how do i think speeding factors into it?the fact that irish people dont think speed is a problem..when you have two cars collide at such speed you have no chance of survival your meat entertwined with metal.disgusting and horrific and very sad for the family but true.

Sids Not

How many times have you thought to yourself, "If i'd have been going 1kph faster/slow, then THAT wouldnt have happened"....;)

"THAT" being anyrthing that might endanger your life or others ,vehicles ,animals , shrubbery, etc...

Whats meant for ya will never pass ya by........;)

Atomic Pineapple

christmas2012 wrote: »

he was going fast,before he got to where i was in the road,i was miles ahead of the guy,he passed about 5-6 cars in a row at speed.with speed you give yourself less time and room to manouvre or slow out of a hazardous situation in the road,lets say there was a horse in the road,which happened to me once,coming out from limerick near a halting site a few horses broke loose,and one crossed the road right in front of me,if i was going fast,me and the horse would have been killed..so speed does matter..

how do i think speeding factors into it?the fact that irish people dont think speed is a problem..when you have two cars collide at such speed you have no chance of survival your meat entertwined with metal.disgusting and horrific and very sad for the family but true.

Speed doesn't matter in the incident you described, only poor judgment from the driver involved, speed didn't make him dangerously overtake.

martingriff

I know this has been said by one poster but for all asking wht the guards are not on backroads and the such it is more than likely due to safety. Dont forget that they need a safe place to park and set up for the garda cars and to set up the go slow vans.

coffee_cake

Sids Not wrote: »

How many times have you thought to yourself, "If i'd have been going 1kph faster/slow, then THAT wouldnt have happened"....;)

"THAT" being anyrthing that might endanger your life or others ,vehicles ,animals , shrubbery, etc...

Whats meant for ya will never pass ya by........;)

none
safe driving

blackwhite

Not one, but two of them along the N11 at lunchtime. Both checking people heading into City.

Jeep with a tripod out at the Stillorga/Kilmacud lights.

Garda van pulled in before UCD flyover. The van was a strange one. Was in a line of traffic, first two cars at the Fosters Avenue lights zipped off down the road, past the van and no flash. As the group of traffic I was in passed them at approx 50-55kmph (limit is 60) the thing flashed three times in quick succession??? Not too worried about it as I know I was safely under the limit, but confused as to why it didn't flash for the two cars 50-100 yards further down the road who were clearly going faster than everything else.

paddyland

I find this whole speeding campaign seriously flawed. Like everything else in this country, we cannot seem to debate things intelligently and openly, and maybe learn something in the process.

Speeding causes carnage. The faster the speed, the greater the carnage.

But the accidents that facilitate the carnage are generally caused by one or a combination of three things. 1) Driver error, including a) insufficient driving education or experience, b) lack of care and attention and c) bad or deliberately dangerous attitude; 2) Mechanical failure; 3) Road engineering.

Cutting speeding can cut the serious effects of accidents, and cut the number of fatalities, which in itself is reason enough to clamp down on it.

But the wrong message is being sent out. The message being sent out is that speeding in itself causes accidents, and therefore by not speeding, accidents will not occur. I beg to differ.

If someone is stupid or ill educated enough to cause an accident at a black spot on the road above the speed limit, they are generally just as likely to cause a similar accident below the speed limit. Cutting the speed will give extra time for avoidance of an accident, but will not cure the lack of education or awareness of a careless driver.

In my experience, the larger proportion of the driving public are simply not educated or experienced enough for safe daily driving, and within that, some are woefully inadequately educated. The message being sent out to these people is that, so long as they don't speed, everything else they do is okay or acceptable. We are all familiar with the grossly dangerous and ignorant behaviour of far too many drivers on the road, and much or most of it is below the speed limit, or even at a stop.

Have we decided in this country now, that educating drivers properly, promoting the Rules of the Road, and enforcing road traffic law across the board, is simply too costly or too much trouble? Or even more worryingly, do we have a general viewpoint now that proper driver education and the Rules of the Road is simply irrelevant? Is targetting speeding drivers, and in the wrong locations at that, simply the easiest cop out, while announcing that we are 'doing something' about traffic accidents?

By all means enforce speeding law. It quite obviously produces results in the cutting of road fatalities and serious injuries.

But for God's sake, stop with this ridiculous message that cutting speeding absolves all responsibility for proper driving education, and the Rules of the Road generally. Irish driving standards are very poor, regardless of how bad they may be elsewhere in the world. We really should be trying to raise standards and awareness. I fear we are dumbing it down instead.

Big Nasty

I hear Gaybo was on the wireless this morning slating all the lunatic Donegal drivers. :pac:

mikeecho

spotted 2 speed checks today with in 15min of each other.
First one had a Jeep with horse trailer pulled in.

The second one was running radar.. yes radar, they must have pulled out every piece of speed detection equipment from the store room

eringobragh

mikeecho wrote: »

spotted 2 speed checks today with in 15min of each other.
First one had a Jeep with horse trailer pulled in.

The second one was running radar.. yes radar, they must have pulled out every piece of speed detection equipment from the store room

Id say it was well out of tune at this stage!

mfceiling

Van parked this evening inbound at the small dual carriageway at the Spawell....a notoriously dangerous stretch of road with fatalities in the hundreds...no sorry wait, a handy way of generating a few quid...

piperh

Not a single garda sighting either travelling N3 from cavan to ballymount and back again. I love their version of high visibilty. :rolleyes:

Cassidy28

Lots of gardai visible this evening, looking out their windows of the local garda station.

Reg'stoy

Cassidy28 wrote: »

Lots of gardai visible this evening, looking out their windows of the local garda station.

uck51js9zml2yt

I drove from Cabra to Lucan this morning and back this evening and not a single garda anywhere to be seen.

Paparazzo

paddyland wrote: »

I find this whole speeding campaign seriously flawed. Like everything else in this country, we cannot seem to debate things intelligently and openly, and maybe learn something in the process.

Speeding causes carnage. The faster the speed, the greater the carnage.

But the accidents that facilitate the carnage are generally caused by one or a combination of three things. 1) Driver error, including a) insufficient driving education or experience, b) lack of care and attention and c) bad or deliberately dangerous attitude; 2) Mechanical failure; 3) Road engineering.

Cutting speeding can cut the serious effects of accidents, and cut the number of fatalities, which in itself is reason enough to clamp down on it.

But the wrong message is being sent out. The message being sent out is that speeding in itself causes accidents, and therefore by not speeding, accidents will not occur. I beg to differ.

If someone is stupid or ill educated enough to cause an accident at a black spot on the road above the speed limit, they are generally just as likely to cause a similar accident below the speed limit. Cutting the speed will give extra time for avoidance of an accident, but will not cure the lack of education or awareness of a careless driver.

In my experience, the larger proportion of the driving public are simply not educated or experienced enough for safe daily driving, and within that, some are woefully inadequately educated. The message being sent out to these people is that, so long as they don't speed, everything else they do is okay or acceptable. We are all familiar with the grossly dangerous and ignorant behaviour of far too many drivers on the road, and much or most of it is below the speed limit, or even at a stop.

Have we decided in this country now, that educating drivers properly, promoting the Rules of the Road, and enforcing road traffic law across the board, is simply too costly or too much trouble? Or even more worryingly, do we have a general viewpoint now that proper driver education and the Rules of the Road is simply irrelevant? Is targetting speeding drivers, and in the wrong locations at that, simply the easiest cop out, while announcing that we are 'doing something' about traffic accidents?

By all means enforce speeding law. It quite obviously produces results in the cutting of road fatalities and serious injuries.

But for God's sake, stop with this ridiculous message that cutting speeding absolves all responsibility for proper driving education, and the Rules of the Road generally. Irish driving standards are very poor, regardless of how bad they may be elsewhere in the world. We really should be trying to raise standards and awareness. I fear we are dumbing it down instead.

There was a big article saying exactly that in a motorcycle magazine I was reading a few years ago. In their stats (UK) they had speeding responsible for something like 3% of accidents. Would love to find that article again!
I know any accident I've ever had, and every near miss, speeding wasn't a factor whatsoever.

JMSE

I drove from Mizen Head to Killarney to Limerick to Ennis and back to Limerick and up to Dublin and only saw one Garda with a speed gun on the whole trip. I'd have to say Operation Slow Down seems to have been taken literally by the Guards in the performance of their duties. What a waste of all the hype they generated about the whole thing, conserve hype thats what I say.

gebbel

Garda car parked on the R122 overpass of the M1 (Balbriggan) a while ago. I saw the car late but didn't see a Garda. It was nearly dark though. I was slightly over the 120km/h limit so may well pay for it.

dgt

Feck all happening here. Saw the unmarked car twice but that's it!

Blazer

Saw the traffic corp chap in Limerick just off the 100kph after the motorway ends before the tunnel and luckily had my cruise control on..I was thinking to myself if they';re going to be anywhere it'll there..which they were
Of course the 3 plebs who overtook me all got nabbed..he he

Our man in Havana

Too wet for any Garda action here.

Nonoperational

Yakuza wrote: »

Don't shoot the messenger, bud. I did say I thought you'd been harshly done by. I was pointing out that just because an area isn't on that map, you're never going to find speed enforcement activity on it. In fact, as I understand things, the private vans work on those maps, the guards can set up checkpoints everywhere else.

Yep I know, just was a touch more annoying that it was 2 vans in areas not marked as enforcement zones. But ya your right.