Operation “Light Up” 20th-21st February 2013

the_syco

http://www.rsa.ie/en/Utility/News/2013/Operation-Light-Up-20th-21st-February-2013/

A safety initiative entitled “Light Up” will take place nationally on Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st February 2013. Its aim is to address the significant issue of defective, broken, missing or inappropriate use of vehicle lighting. Garda members will specifically target and intercept drivers who have defective lighting, or are using them inappropriately, on their vehicles.

Hope it takes the "motorbike light" cars off the road, before they get wiped out by a truck, or before they wipe out a pedestrian because they didn't see them (passive reflective clothes are useless in the dark).

colm_mcm

Should they not be doing this anyway?

piston

I welcome this as missing/poorly adjusted lights annoy me but, and it's a very big but -

I haven't seen a Garda checkpoint in about 4 years now. Chance of being apprehended for any motoring offence around here is non-existent unless you actually hit something.

Supergurrier

When is operation fix the bloody roads ?

ba_barabus

colm_mcm wrote: »

Should they not be doing this anyway?

Just in time for the long bright days of summer

Rightwing

The Gardai are losing credibility in my opionion. If this is the biggest crime, let's cut Garda numbers. €60 fine for bulbs blowing, absolutely pathetic.

biko

They're probably doing the campaign mainly to get awareness and to get some lazy bastards to get off their bum and fix their broken bulbs
Some might not even be aware that their lights are not working.

Should been done in Nov/Dec but hey it's better than nothing.

Rightwing

biko wrote: »

They're probably doing the campaign mainly to get awareness and to get some lazy bastards to get off their bum and fix their broken bulbs
Some might not even be aware that their lights are not working.

Should been done in Nov/Dec but hey it's better than nothing.

I would say: They're probably doing the campaign mainly to get some cash from hard pressed punters.

Most cars that fail the NCT due to light failure is not because the bulb isn't working, but because someone hit a massive pothole and the lights were out of focus.

tossy

I sense a move towards the Faulty light bulbs kill people campaign,now that they've flogged the speed/boy racers kill people campaign to death (pardon the pun)

Anything is better than a "sh1t roads and sh1t driver education system kills people" campaign.

bazz26

Rightwing wrote: »

I would say: They're probably doing the campaign mainly to get some cash from hard pressed punters.

Most cars that fail the NCT due to light failure is not because the bulb isn't working, but because someone hit a massive pothole and the lights were out of focus.

Not sure what part of the country you are in but down here I am sick to death of seeing vehicles with one dipped light only working, one or no brake lights working, driving around with fog lights on when there is no fog or those idiots with their ultra bright HID kits that blind everything coming towards them.

Some drivers seem to think that the only time they need to check or change a light bulb in their vehicle is when the NCT tells them to. Maybe a nice on the spot fine might install some common sense or vigilence into these people. My only disappointment is that they are going doing it for 2 days.

Sobanek

bazz26 wrote: »

Not sure what part of the country you are in but down here I am sick to death of seeing vehicles with one dipped light only working, one or no brake lights working, driving around with fog lights on when there is no fog or those idiots with their ultra bright HID kits that blind everything coming towards them.

Some drivers seem to think that the only time they need to check or change a light bulb in their vehicle is when the NCT tells them to. Maybe a nice on the spot fine might install some common sense or vigilence into these people. My only disappointment is that they are going doing it for 2 days.

This is a pain. Especially at night. I flashed a guy once, because I thought he was driving on high beams - got flashed back and permanently blinded.

_Kaiser_

ba_barabus wrote: »

Just in time for the long bright days of summer

That was the first thing I thought of when I opened this thread. It was already fairly bright at half 7 this morning and there were of course several cars without any lights on at all as a result.

Where were they 6 weeks ago when cars were doing this in the actual darkness or (worse) driving along with parking lights as if that makes it better and shure it's an urban area anyway! :rolleyes:

Sobanek

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

That was the first thing I thought of when I opened this thread. It was already fairly bright at half 7 this morning and there were of course several cars without any lights on at all as a result.

Where were they 6 weeks ago when cars were doing this in the actual; darkness or (worse) driving along with parking lights as if that makes it better and shure it's an urban area anyway! :rolleyes:

I was going to Tescos at 10pm yesterday, and there was an idiot in his Golf, driving with parking lights and his foglights on.

Mycroft H

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

That was the first thing I thought of when I opened this thread. It was already fairly bright at half 7 this morning and there were of course several cars without any lights on at all as a result.

Where were they 6 weeks ago when cars were doing this in the actual darkness or (worse) driving along with parking lights as if that makes it better and shure it's an urban area anyway! :rolleyes:

Agreed. Should have been done way back in September/October.

megafan

Does this mean they'll have no interest in other motoring offences on Feb 20th

monkeypants

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

It was already fairly bright at half 7 this morning

Half seven? You on holiday, Kaiser?

_Kaiser_

monkeypants wrote: »

Half seven? You on holiday, Kaiser?

I wish.. Worse again I was in work 5 mins later. The sunny south of the city.

JAMES VTI S

Rightwing wrote: »

I would say: They're probably doing the campaign mainly to get some cash from hard pressed punters.

:pac: gas man

• a crash costs how much??
• a fine cost how much??
• a bulb costs how much?

Rightwing wrote: »

Most cars that fail the NCT due to light failure is not because the bulb isn't working, but because someone hit a massive pothole and the lights were out of focus.

:pac: gas man 2

if a bulb pops out there is a problem with the retainer or its fit incorrectly

_____________________________________________________________

• Yes it is a pitty money is hard to come by
• yes it is a pitty the roads are not perfect
• yes its a pitty some people dont give a $%^* about there cars

Cookie_Monster

bazz26 wrote: »

Not sure what part of the country you are in but down here I am sick to death of seeing vehicles ... driving around with fog lights on when there is no fog

The chances of AGS being aware of and enforcing the rules regarding (front) fog light are slim to none IMO, regardless of the other points.

Mint Sauce

I checked my bulbs this evening when leaving work, all were fine. What would have happened if one blew on the way home and I was stopped.

If I had spare bulbs whould I have been okay.

Ardennes1944

On my ten minute drive home from work a while ago, from headlights alone the government would have made an easy 480e

highdef

Some EU countries stipulate that you MUST carry a spare bulb set in your car at all times. I'm not sure exactly what the set must contain but I would assume at least one of every type of bulb in your car.....probably only exterior ones that are required but I am unsure. What happens in these countries is you get pulled over by the Police for having a tail light, headlight, whatever light out. Policeman says "ok, please change the faulty bulb out now" - assuming the driver is in a safe location to perform this task. Driver replaces faulty bulb with spare from his/her spare bulb set and off the driver goes....no fine or paperwork. This then covers the rare eventuality that you are pulled over just after a bulb has blown, before you have noticed.

I'm sure there would be the very rare situation where you have replaced a faulty bulb and maybe you only had one spare and then another of the same type fails in a short period of time before you've got a replacement AND you have the misfortune to have been pulled over. I'm sure if the system is up and running properly, that would be very much a very rare exception that would be dealt with accordingly.

If a driver is pulled over and does not have a spare bulb or spare bulb set, driver is fined and presumably will need to prove that the faulty bulb (plus the missing sparebulb(s)/spare bulb set) has been replaced too within X amount of days.

Seems like the best solution as it makes the driver pro-active with regards to regularly checking that his/her lights are in good working order. No-one seems to care right now because everyone knows that nothing is done about it. A lot of drivers don't care what lights are or are not working.....once they can see the road ahead at night, everything is dandy :mad: Although the above needs a lot of enforcement at the beginning (more so here because there are probably close on to 1 in 5 cars with faulty lights on the road - pure guess by me going by my observations), once it is in full flow, it should be self regulating and it does work in countries where this system is in place.

JAMES VTI S

check out my facebook group

Damien360

Why restrict this to headlights. What about faulty brake lights.

Most cars have 3 brake lights to rear centre one. If one is out then you have time to get it fixed. Two out of the three gone should be a fine. If you own a pug206 (why always them) and all the lights are on permanently then you should also get a fine.

ba_barabus

Damien360 wrote: »

If you own a pug206 (why always them) and all the lights are on permanently then you should also get a fine.

Faulty brake light switch.

They all do that sir

foggy_lad

piston wrote: »

I welcome this as missing/poorly adjusted lights annoy me but, and it's a very big but -

I haven't seen a Garda checkpoint in about 4 years now. Chance of being apprehended for any motoring offence around here is non-existent unless you actually hit something.

Garda checkpoints are only rolled out for the cameras when operation freeflow or lightup or whatever is set in motion. Generally a checkpoint like you see on the tv is rarely set up because of lack of manpower and resources. They have to scour the city for the newest cars and vans for the telly. We dont get to see the reality of knackered old baeat up toyotas and mondeos.

Borderfox

Sobanek wrote: »

I was going to Tescos at 10pm yesterday, and there was an idiot in his Golf, driving with parking lights and his foglights on.

But that's soooo cooolll bud :-) nearly as bad as the fu*kwits with the blue blinding bulbs

monkeypants

Didn't see any Gardai on my drive into work this morning.

Sofiztikated

Borderfox wrote: »

But that's soooo cooolll bud :-) nearly as bad as the fu*kwits with the blue blinding bulbs

You think blue is bad? There's some fúcktard driving around here with purple in his Felt'd Golf.

Does anyone else think that this shouldn't have to be just a particular weekend, but an ongoing thing? Shouldn't Gardai be pulling people anyway?

Yes, I'll admit, there have been times where I have knowingly driven, with a bulb gone. Usually on the way to a motor factors, to pick up a set.

Alun

I hope they specifically target trailers too.

I was driving down a narrow road in Wicklow at night last weekend and came across a jeep of some sorts, a Toyota I think, towing a trailer. At first it looked like neither trailer or jeep had any rear ligts showing at all. Getting closer I could see that the trailer (and I use the term loosely here) indeed had no working lights at all, no licence plate and no reflectors either.

On closer inspection the jeep did have some lights, but it was one of those situations where the light clusters on the rear wings had been disabled and switched to clusters really low down on the rear bumper (why do they do this BTW?). Anyway, the "trailer" was so designed that the wheels and mudguards completely obscured these lights, except if you were at just the right angle when it went round a corner and you caught a brief glimpse of them. Brake lights seemed to work as well, but weren't properly visible either due to the same reason, and the third brake light was obscured by the roll bar of the heap-of-junk hill climber he had lashed to the trailer.

If I'd been able to actually see a licence plate I'd have reported the idiot, which possibly why he didn't have one.

Mc Love

I was driving near Castleisland and a car was coming towards me with their full beams on, however when they switched them off, I noticed that one of the full beam bulbs was missing and the car had more light with the headlights than the full beams!

Dont think their campaign is working - punishment is needed. Below is their reply on twitter.

Thanks for your comments. Defective lighting is a serious road safety issue and this campaign follows numerous campaigns we have conducted in the past to raise awareness of this issue, including our recent Winter Ready campaign where we ran radio ads throughout Winter months highlighting the need for drivers to ensure their lights are working correctly.

colm_mcm

Ok its all over, back to normal!

Don't know weather i was more aware of it over the last two days but i saw more blown headlights, smashed brake lights and miss aligned lights than i have in a long time.

joujoujou

Radio ads?

LOL!

Really, very effective campaign, indeed. :P

colm_mcm

In de filims if you've got a dead body in the boot or you're generally on the run from the law, a broken tail light always means you'll be pulled over and questioned, same on those reality tv police chase video shows cops pull people over for defective lights then find heroin on them. On that basis its weird that the gardai don't stop people with blown lights as a matter of course every day

I find that cars with one number plate light missing, one brake light and indicator working tend to be bad drivers anyway

I know of one car near me whose drivers mirror has been folded in for the last few weeks

DanWall

No one seems to have mentioned here that it is a dificult job to change the bulbs on most modern cars, some require the bumper removed. I have heard of a €60 charge to change bulbs.
My Toyota Indicator front bulb couldnot be changed by the local garage, I had a 45mile round trip to the Toyota dealers who also had difficulty changing it. This problem should be put back the the car designers not us.

joujoujou

DanWall wrote: »

No one seems to have mentioned here that it is a dificult job to change the bulbs on most modern cars, some require the bumper removed. I have heard of a €60 charge to change bulbs.

Yes. Sad but true.

[offtopic] Friend of mine recently bought a pair of bulbs (front parking or headlights, don't remember now) in Halfords with their special offer "we fit them for (free or really small amount of money)" and watched them fighting with for some 30 minutes. [/offtopic]

DanWall wrote: »

My Toyota Indicator front bulb couldnot be changed by the local garage, I had a 45mile round trip to the Toyota dealers who also had difficulty changing it. This problem should be put back the the car designers not us.

Agree. But, sadly, cars are not designed by designers - I'd say nowadays they're designed by accountants/bookkeepers - the cheaper, the better.

Sofiztikated

Mc Love wrote: »

I was driving near Castleisland and a car was coming towards me with their full beams on, however when they switched them off, I noticed that one of the full beam bulbs was missing and the car had more light with the headlights than the full beams!

Dont think their campaign is working - punishment is needed. Below is their reply on twitter.

Thanks for your comments. Defective lighting is a serious road safety issue and this campaign follows numerous campaigns we have conducted in the past to raise awareness of this issue, including our recent Winter Ready campaign where we ran radio ads throughout Winter months highlighting the need for drivers to ensure their lights are working correctly.

Em, full beams and headlights are the same thing. Full and dips, no?

Well I'm glad we got through that dangerous 2 days of near complete darkness, and our heroic Gardai out, wrestling these notorious 1 eyed monsters to the ground.

:pac:

On that note, I did see one squad car yesterday, in Cavan. Few minutes later, I heard the siren going, so I imagine someone got pulled.

challengemaster

Sofiztikated wrote: »

I did see one squad car yesterday, in Cavan.

I think it's nearly been a full year since I've come across a checkpoint.

DanWall

Do you live on one of the Islands?

Voodoomelon

Was driving behind a Corsa today at 18:20 on the way home from work for miles, not a single light on. Flashed them and got no response. The only time you could see the car was when they braked.

megafan

colm_mcm wrote: »

In de filims if you've got a dead body in the boot or you're generally on the run from the law, a broken tail light always means you'll be pulled over and questioned,

Example 10.20 on!:D

[URL="mhtml:{852A73D8-D91D-4EF6-A2D8-27794790D1DA}mid://00000475/!x-usc:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2uwXyKyegk"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2uwXyKyegk[/URL]

& 815 on:D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt0-OFr1zQg&NR=1&feature=endscreen

Iwannahurl

Announcing "Operation Light Up" the RSA said:

"“We have seen a marked deterioration in the number of vehicles which fail their NCT or Commercial Vehicle Roadworthiness (CVR) test because of defective lights. In 2012 over 550,000 cars were found to have defective lights at NCT. That’s over 1 in 5 of the national vehicle fleet."

Follow up press release from AGS - Operation “Light Up” 20th-21st February 2013

"A safety initiative entitled "Light Up” was held nationally on Wednesday, the 20th and Thursday, the 21st February 2013.

Its aim was to address the significant issue of defective, broken, missing or inappropriate use of fog lights/ lamps in an effort to save lives. Garda members specifically targeted and intercepted drivers who had defective lighting, or were using them inappropriately on their vehicles.

Members of the public were advised of this initiative in advance. This gave drivers and riders an opportunity and an incentive to rectify any defects that may be present on their vehicles and thus avoid prosecution, whilst at the same time make their vehicles safer."

Nationally:

Offences detected and dealt with by advice to motorist -- 1089
Fixed Charge Notice / Prosecution -- 317

Del2005

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Nationally:

Offences detected and dealt with by advice to motorist -- 1089
Fixed Charge Notice / Prosecution -- 317

They didn't try then. I can rarely count more the 4 cars before I see defective lighting coming towards me, so over 2 days several thousand highly trained officers of the law saw less than 1 defectively lit vehicle each:eek::eek:

challengemaster

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Offences detected and dealt with by advice to motorist -- 1089
Fixed Charge Notice / Prosecution -- 317

Highlights the problem with our policing better than ever. For something that should be black and white, no judgement calls needed, just issue FPNs if there's an offense - you have over 2/3rd of offenders getting away with a chat basically.

Is it any wonder nobody gives a flying fúck when they're pretty much guaranteed to avoid any punishment.

creedp

challengemaster wrote: »

Highlights the problem with our policing better than ever. For something that should be black and white, no judgement calls needed, just issue FPNs if there's an offense - you have over 2/3rd of offenders getting away with a chat basically.

Is it any wonder nobody gives a flying fúck when they're pretty much guaranteed to avoid any punishment.

I must lead a sheltered life but I don't notice the high levels of faulty lights being referred to here. For me the biggest light faux pas is front fog light on the whole damn time! Another thing I don't understand is if all cars over 4 year have to do an NCT every 2 yerars how come so many cars have faulty lights. Do so many headlights blow within 2 years? Is is usual for a high number of new cars to have faulty headlights within 1st 4 years - when cars are being serviced does anybody actually change faulty bulbs? Surely on a nearly new car a person will change a faulty bulb at a service if prompted by the mechanic?

Anyway it seems to me this new crackdown will as always effect a small number of people who would normally replace faulty bulbs asap but just to happen to run into a checkpoint when the bulbs have just blown, while others will continue to drive on without a care or until the next NCT. That's life I suppose.

Alun

Del2005 wrote: »

They didn't try then. I can rarely count more the 4 cars before I see defective lighting coming towards me, so over 2 days several thousand highly trained officers of the law saw less than 1 defectively lit vehicle each:eek::eek:

I did that check on the way home last night ... around 5pm, not dark but very murky, raining, and didn't get over 4 either. Having said that the vast majority had nothing to do with defective lights, but defective drivers ... no lights at all, just sidelights or foglights on with either sidelights or dipped lights.

Iwannahurl

Del2005 wrote: »

They didn't try then. I can rarely count more the 4 cars before I see defective lighting coming towards me, so over 2 days several thousand highly trained officers of the law saw less than 1 defectively lit vehicle each:eek::eek:

challengemaster wrote: »

Highlights the problem with our policing better than ever. For something that should be black and white, no judgement calls needed, just issue FPNs if there's an offense - you have over 2/3rd of offenders getting away with a chat basically.

Is it any wonder nobody gives a flying fúck when they're pretty much guaranteed to avoid any punishment.

creedp wrote: »

Anyway it seems to me this new crackdown will as always effect a small number of people who would normally replace faulty bulbs asap but just to happen to run into a checkpoint when the bulbs have just blown, while others will continue to drive on without a care or until the next NCT. That's life I suppose.

My initial reaction when I saw the detections stats was: what was all the fuss about?

A recent AA poll found that 80% of 19000 respondents said that they see cars with defective lights on either a daily or regular basis, as opposed to only 5 per cent who said that they rarely or never saw them. Two thirds of drivers polled said that at least once during the past year they had had a near miss or fright because of one of these cars.

Truth is though, the highly-publicised advance warnings may have prompted motorists either to fix their defective lights or stay off the road.

I think the way Garda discretion was used in this operation was reasonable. A bulb could have blown without the driver realising, and there's a view that hitting a pothole can knock out a light. My guess would be that AGS penalised those motorists who were guilty of some other offence as well, or who were driving obviously defective vehicles and needed a wake-up call.

Del2005

Iwannahurl wrote: »

My initial reaction when I saw the detections stats was: what was all the fuss about?

A recent AA poll found that 80% of 19000 respondents said that they see cars with defective lights on either a daily or regular basis, as opposed to only 5 per cent who said that they rarely or never saw them. Two thirds of drivers polled said that at least once during the past year they had had a near miss or fright because of one of these cars.

Truth is though, the highly-publicised advance warnings may have prompted motorists either to fix their defective lights or stay off the road.

There has been no difference from my counting defective lighting while driving. Still can't get above 4.

Iwannahurl wrote: »

I think the way Garda discretion was used in this operation was reasonable. A bulb could have blown without the driver realising, and there's a view that hitting a pothole can knock out a light. My guess would be that AGS penalised those motorists who were guilty of some other offence as well, or who were driving obviously defective vehicles and needed a wake-up call.

I've no bother with Gardaí using their discretion. What I have a problem with is that over a 48 hour period when they where supposed to be having a major clampdown they only saw 1400 vehicles with defective lighting.

By the total lack of enforcement of vehicle lighting laws during a clampdown it shows how little respect they actually have for law abiding citizens of this country.

Notch000

what ever happened to this initative ? still a shocking amount of cars going round with defective lights & fog light 24/7, even had on chancer tailgation a few night ago who was switching between between ful beams and no dips at all, flashing ever car he passed and blinding me al the time

colm_mcm

It was a two day campaign, its over now. Everyone got their bulbs fixed.
Probably have another one next year.