What happens if a pedestrian reports a motorist for breaking a red light?

bobbysands81

Do the Gardai act on it?

How do they determine who is in the right and wrong?

dr.fuzzenstein

I would presume the same as always. A stifled yawn on the other end of the phone along with "yeah, we'll look into it"

Joe prim

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

I would presume the same as always. A stifled yawn on the other end of the phone along with "yeah, we'll look into it"

Wrong! Due to cutbacks, and in the interests of greater transparency, the AGS no longer stifle yawns when taking calls from the public.

dr.fuzzenstein

Some people might think this will happen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atks5rRqQkg

partyatmygaff

What could they do? Extract the memory from your mind and use it as evidence?

corglass

bobbysands81 wrote: »

Do the Gardai act on it?

How do they determine who is in the right and wrong?

Why would a pedestrian bother reporting it?

What do they expect out if it?

dr.fuzzenstein

corglass wrote: »

Why would a pedestrian bother reporting it?

What do they expect out if it?

Yeah, this is Ireland after all, breaking a light isn't even an offense, they are advisory only to motorists. And if the car didn't break the "no more than 5 cars after red" rule, then its perfectly within Irish law.

Chris_Heilong

If it didnt kill anyone or cause damage then they should just be called assholes and forgotten about. Reporting stuff like this is a waste of time for everyone. I am sure in the near future there will be cameras set up on all traffic lights and automatic fines sent to the offenders home.

CiniO

bobbysands81 wrote: »

What happens if a pedestrian reports a motorist for breaking a red light?
Do the Gardai act on it?

How do they determine who is in the right and wrong?

About the same, as if the motorist reported pedestrian for breaking red light.

MadYaker

Maybe if you had a video of it that showed the car reg they might do something. But if you just call up and say "I saw a guy break a red light!" with no proof there's nothing they can do is there.

Bepolite

MadYaker wrote: »

Maybe if you had a video of it that showed the car reg they might do something. But if you just call up and say "I saw a guy break a red light!" with no proof there's nothing they can do is there.

There is the sworn testomy of the person reporting it. If you want something done report it to traffic watch, they will follow it up. You'll have to go to court though so very little is likely to happen.

Iwannahurl

bobbysands81 wrote: »

Do the Gardai act on it?

How do they determine who is in the right and wrong?

Reporting such incidents a bit hit and miss, in my experience.

However, the most common response I get is that the report goes nowhere unless you're willing to make a formal statement and follow it up as far as a court case.

In other words, unless the incident was serious enough neither the complainant nor the Gardai are likely to follow it up.

It used to be the case not too long ago that a diligent Garda might contact the driver and speak to the (allegedly) offending motorist, but those days may be over.

hmmm

Like everything else to do with the guards, it depends on whether your complaint goes to someone who gives a damn. The response could be very good or they'll ignore you, and there's no way to know in advance.

johndaman66

But in fairness you could take a spite against someone and say they broke a red light when they didn't. At the end of the day its your word against theirs. Lets face it, many of those running the country even are hardly very transparent or honest.

I remember an artic overtook me dangerously and almost tried to blow me off the road despite me doing the 62mph speed limit. I rang that Garda confidential number and was told they would need to be reported 5 times for the Gardai to take any action. Was asked if I'd like to give my contact details in case 5 incidents were to be clocked up and reported which I did as otherwise it would be a waste of a call. In retrospect it probaly was a waste of a call anyway...the same driver could very realistically be driving a different truck with different number plates obviously next time round if there were a fleet of trucks and slip through the system despite committing many offences.. not sure where your going

Dartz

It's gonna happen soon enough...

CiniO

johndaman66 wrote: »

But in fairness you could take a spite against someone and say they broke a red light when they didn't. At the end of the day its your word against theirs. Lets face it, many of those running the country even are hardly very transparent or honest.

I remember an artic overtook me dangerously and almost tried to blow me off the road despite me doing the 62mph speed limit. I rang that Garda confidential number and was told they would need to be reported 5 times for the Gardai to take any action. Was asked if I'd like to give my contact details in case 5 incidents were to be clocked up and reported which I did as otherwise it would be a waste of a call. In retrospect it probaly was a waste of a call anyway...the same driver could very realistically be driving a different truck with different number plates obviously next time round if there were a fleet of trucks and slip through the system despite committing many offences.. not sure where your going

Love those stories where trucks limited to 90km/h somehow overtake cars doing 100km/h... Miracles.

johndaman66

CiniO wrote: »

Love those stories where trucks limited to 90km/h somehow overtake cars doing 100km/h... Miracles.

Ah come on don't tell me you don't see trucks doing in excess of 100km/h?:eek: I know they are suppose to be restricted and maybe its something thats being squeezed up on more and more all the time but still many out there that can and do travel in excess of 100km/h....no miracle about it...If you do any driving worth you'll cop that

CiniO

johndaman66 wrote: »

Ah come on don't tell me you don't see trucks doing in excess of 100km/h?:eek: I know they are suppose to be restricted and maybe its something thats being squeezed up on more and more all the time but still many out there that can and do travel in excess of 100km/h....no miracle about it...If you do any driving worth you'll cop that

I drive for last 15 years, I work as professional driver part time, I do drive my car a lot as well, I generally do over 60k kilometres per annum, some of it across Europe, and I don't recall seeing a truck doing more than 90km/h even once over those last 15 years.
So yes - I'm telling you I've never seen one.
I know theoretically it's possible to have limited disabled or broken, but in practice I never seen anything like that.

the_syco

Dartz wrote: »

It's gonna happen soon enough...

Pretty sure calling the emergency authorities is exempt, and you just got to show the Gardai proof (ie; call log) and you'd be okay.

George Dalton

One night in around 2008 I was driving home from Limerick and on the way into Abbeyleix came to a Garda checkpoint. I queued up and expected to be waved through but instead I was stopped and pulled in to one side. Turned out someone had reported me for overtaking on a continuous line. Nothing came of it in the end but according to the guard who pulled me over if the guy wanted to pursue it and make an official complaint then I could well have ended up in court.

Now I don't know if yer man who reported me was a guard or just an ordinary Joe soap but it fairly put the sh1ts up me at the time!

lycan238

the_syco wrote: »

Pretty sure calling the emergency authorities is exempt, and you just got to show the Gardai proof (ie; call log) and you'd be okay.

Yes a call to the emergency services is exempt from the legislation. However in order to insure the safety of yourself and other road users it is advisable to pull over in a safe place and make the call from there (obviously can't happen on a motorway).

kerry4sam

bobbysands81 wrote: »

Do the Gardai act on it?

How do they determine who is in the right and wrong?

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

I would presume the same as always. A stifled yawn on the other end of the phone along with "yeah, we'll look into it"

Bepolite wrote: »

There is the sworn testomy of the person reporting it. If you want something done report it to traffic watch, they will follow it up. You'll have to go to court though so very little is likely to happen.

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Reporting such incidents a bit hit and miss, in my experience.

However, the most common response I get is that the report goes nowhere unless you're willing to make a formal statement and follow it up as far as a court case.

In other words, unless the incident was serious enough neither the complainant nor the Gardai are likely to follow it up.

It used to be the case not too long ago that a diligent Garda might contact the driver and speak to the (allegedly) offending motorist, but those days may be over.

hmmm wrote: »

Like everything else to do with the guards, it depends on whether your complaint goes to someone who gives a damn. The response could be very good or they'll ignore you, and there's no way to know in advance.

Their are numerous traffic-lights with cameras attached, incl pedestrian crossings with traffic lights so presumably if you could find any member willing to do what they are being paid to do, then surely they would find access to those cctv cameras?!

I have seen many times where pedestrians would be on the crossings as the cars keep driving on resulting in the pedestrians having to jump backward.

I've given up on phoning anything in though. Just utterly pointless, unless to Traffic Watch i.e. but even then it's been a while since I phoned anything in.

Thanks,
kerry4sam

johndaman66

CiniO wrote: »

I drive for last 15 years, I work as professional driver part time, I do drive my car a lot as well, I generally do over 60k kilometres per annum, some of it across Europe, and I don't recall seeing a truck doing more than 90km/h even once over those last 15 years.
So yes - I'm telling you I've never seen one.
I know theoretically it's possible to have limited disabled or broken, but in practice I never seen anything like that.

Ah man come on, maybe it doesn't happen in continental Europe...don't know have done very little driving there but if you reckon little or no artic trucks exceed 90km/h in Republic of Ireland then your very much deluded and/or have a very poor perception of speed I'm afraid. You may not do it yourself or have been in a truck being driven over 90km/h but trust me they do exceed that speed

Del2005

the_syco wrote: »

Pretty sure calling the emergency authorities is exempt, and you just got to show the Gardai proof (ie; call log) and you'd be okay.

112/999 is contacting the emergency services.

Is calling the Garda confidential line considered calling the emergency services? Is traffic watch an emergency service? I doubt it since neither gives an immediate response.

CiniO

johndaman66 wrote: »

Ah man come on, maybe it doesn't happen in continental Europe...don't know have done very little driving there but if you reckon little or no artic trucks exceed 90km/h in Republic of Ireland then your very much deluded and/or have a very poor perception of speed I'm afraid. You may not do it yourself or have been in a truck being driven over 90km/h but trust me they do exceed that speed

Well it's not that I assume. I'm 100% sure I've never seen a truck doing 100km/h in Ireland.
Indeed some speed limiters might not be exactly precise, even due to tyre wear - so one truck might be limited to 89km/h while other will bo limited to 92km/h.
But none of them will do 100km/h.

And there's no case of poor perception of speed. If I'm travelling at 95km/h on motorway and no truck ever overtaken me or came close from behind, and I'm overtaking all of them with about 5km/h speed diffrenece, then it means they are doing 90km/h.

Maybe your delusion that they go quicker is based on fact that your speedometer is overreading, and f.e. if you think you are doing 100km/h in fact you are doing 88km/h or something.

vibe666

driving home on the N3 on the way into Navan, my wife and I saw a guy weaving all over the road (on a straight bit) almost fully into the opposite carriageway in places and almost in the ditch on our own side.

we called navan garda station and told them that we were following him at a distance and they said they'd send someone right out. we called back several times with updates as to where he was over the course of the (fairly busy) time it took to drive right around naven and out to woodies on the other side, but they never came.

i got alongside him at one point and his head was weaving all over the place barely even able to hold the steering wheel, grinding his teeth like a zombie and obviously out of his face on a lot more than drink (on a weekday afternoon) whilst it was still light.

he eventually pulled over on the verge a few hundred yards before woodis after the roundabout is (this was before it was there) and we drove past and pulled in ahead of him and called the garda again and they kept telling us they were on the way and not to intervene ourselves as i'd said i wanted to go over and take his keys out whilst he was stationary so he couldn't go anywhere, but they warned me in very strong terms not to go near him.

another 20 minutes passed with us waiting and eventually he started to drive off again whilst we were on the phone to the garda station again (bearing in mind it's literally a few hundred yards away and they could have literally walked to where we were in less time and they never came.

i actually drove back past the station on our way home and there were several squad cars parked there and the car park was almost full.

i wanted to go in and give them an earful, but my wife stopped me as a few months earlier getting a form signed in there we had seen two garda bring a cuffed dude in and use his face to open the big double front doors and then pick him up by his hands from the floor (with loud screams) even though he was cuffed behind his back, so as ugly as i am she seems quite fond of my face the way it is.

johndaman66

CiniO wrote: »

Well it's not that I assume. I'm 100% sure I've never seen a truck doing 100km/h in Ireland.
Indeed some speed limiters might not be exactly precise, even due to tyre wear - so one truck might be limited to 89km/h while other will bo limited to 92km/h.
But none of them will do 100km/h.

And there's no case of poor perception of speed. If I'm travelling at 95km/h on motorway and no truck ever overtaken me or came close from behind, and I'm overtaking all of them with about 5km/h speed diffrenece, then it means they are doing 90km/h.

Maybe your delusion that they go quicker is based on fact that your speedometer is overreading, and f.e. if you think you are doing 100km/h in fact you are doing 88km/h or something.

Good Lord. I acknowledge that my speedometer does read a few km/h over actual speed as many tend to do but nothing like that much. Anyway its not too far off my sat nav which I always go by and would assume you agree the sat nav is very much on the money?

All I can say is that I'm at a loss to understand how somebody who does as much driving as yourself assumes or fails to acknowledge that many artics out there on the road travel at 100km/h. Many don't break the speed limit, sure, but a considerable number do. I might understand your reasoning if it was the very odd one here and there but there are too many exceeding that speed limit for one to form that opinion. I'm afraid your the one that is obviously deluded my friend...

CiniO

johndaman66 wrote: »

Good Lord. I acknowledge that my speedometer does read a few km/h over actual speed as many tend to do but nothing like that much. Anyway its not too far off my sat nav which I always go by and would assume you agree the sat nav is very much on the money?

Yes I agree. GPS usually can show pretty accurate speed.

All I can say is that I'm at a loss to understand how somebody who does as much driving as yourself assumes or fails to acknowledge that many artics out there on the road travel at 100km/h. Many don't break the speed limit, sure, but a considerable number do.

Speed limit for trucks is 80km/h and 90km/h on motorways. So if they are doing 100km/h anywhere they are braking speed limit. But as I said - they don't.

I might understand your reasoning if it was the very odd one here and there but there are too many exceeding that speed limit for one to form that opinion. I'm afraid your the one that is obviously deluded my friend...

Well, I know what I'm saying. I haven't seen any truck doing 100km/h in my life, and I traveled way over half a million kilometres, at least half of which on Irish roads. I'm not deluded. I'm sure of what I'm saying and what I've seen of haven't seen.
I'm not saying it's impossible there is some truck somewhere without speed limiter which drives at 100km/h or above. But considering that I've never seen any, it means it must be extremely rare thing to see.

If you see them daily maybe just show us a video once showing your speed of at least 90km/h on your SatNav and truck overtaking you. Would be interesting to see.

johndaman66

I don't know what to say to you CiniO except I've travelled at least the same distance as you on Irish roads, low water, be it as a passenger, but mainly as a driver and for sure and certain I can confirm artic trucks do travel at 100km/h at least or more. I will try to get you footage of this but wont promise it to be any time very soon. Don't have a dash cam or that and would rather take this footage if in with someone else as a passenger I'm sure you'll appreciate

TheNog

vibe666 wrote: »

i actually drove back past the station on our way home and there were several squad cars parked there and the car park was almost full.

Just because there were several patrol cars outside the station does not mean there was Gardaí to put into them

Dartz

the_syco wrote: »

Pretty sure calling the emergency authorities is exempt, and you just got to show the Gardai proof (ie; call log) and you'd be okay.

It's still bad ****ing luck. It'd also, at the very least, involve a fair bit of hassle.