Odd Checkpoint Conversation

MuddyDog

A week or so ago there was a Garda checkpoint. It was just after where a 120 speed limit became a 100 speed limit. I was doing the speed limit and came around a small bend when I saw all the flashing lights etc and obviously slowed right down and cruised up to the Garda. Her first question was how fast was I going around the bend to which I said 100. She wasn't having that though and was adamant I was doing at least 120. Anyways, like most other cars ahead of me I was asked to pull in and she proceeded to check the usual tax and insurance and asked for my license which I gave. She also asked for my address which I gave and she wrote it down on her notepad. She then said, "Do you smell your car", to which I replied, "Sorry there's some gym gear in the backseat from earlier!", but she then replied with "I mean your engine. From the smell of your engine it seems like you were going very fast". My reply to that was "I wasn't breaking the speed limit anyway". She then said that if a Garda pulls me over again they'll see what she's wrote down and then she said I'm free to go.

All quite bizarre I thought. First that she has no proof whatsoever of what speed I was actually doing as there wasn't a speed van or radar gun at the checkpoint. Why did she want my address and what could she have possibly wrote down is what I want to know!

Alanstrainor

She smelled your car...

Sorry, I like to drive in 2nd gear on the motorway. Makes a nice noise.

Special Circumstances

Classic stuff. My specially calibrated olfactory senses have determined you were going fierce fasht altogether.

http://grandgrand.bigcartel.com/product/you-re-looking-well-guard-glow-in-the-dark-tax-insurance-nct-disc-holder

smash

Next time someone runs your reg they'll be given a warning to wear a gas mask before approaching your smelly car.

MuddyDog

Not sure if an engine even smells after 7 or 8 km's driving either which is what I had just done before coming across the checkpoint.

savagethegoat

bad hair day

fancy pigeon

I was once told by a garda:

"There's something wrong with your suspension, I nearly ran into the back of you"

No further comment

joujoujou

Ahh, dem wimmin'

Very fussy once a month.


Mod: Unacceptable. Let's have no more of this type of comment.

BreadnBuddha

If she stops you again, ask her to smell your finger and tell you where it's been 10 minutes before, seeing she's so good at identifying your previous speed, out of sight, based on the smell of your engine. FFS.

I've a lot of time for Gardai and the job they do. Sadly, there are gobsheites to be found in every job and it sounds like that's who you encountered.

MuddyDog

Some very funny responses here! I assume she just took my address etc as a sort of scare tactic but in reality nothing will actually be done - at least that's the feeling I got at the time anyway.

Caliden

Ignorant intimidation tactic.

No idea why it's done but I'd assume it's a power trip thing.

Feigning hysterical concern is a good one to wind them up.

"Smell from my car???! is it petrol? You smell petrol?"

And proceed to turn off car, take off seatbelt and get out.

Special Circumstances

As "attitude tests" go it's a pretty poor attempt alright, even the most normal person would be tempted to tell them they were talking through their holes.

ianobrien

If its a diesel all you had to say back to the smell comment is that it must be the DPF regeneration thats giving the smell.

Well done for keeping a straight face. I'd probably have laughed out loud!

ianobrien

If its a diesel all you had to say back to the smell comment is that it must be the DPF regeneration thats giving the smell.

Well done for keeping a straight face. I'd probably have laughed out loud!

Atlantic Dawn

ianobrien wrote: »

If its a diesel all you had to say back to the smell comment is that it must be the DPF regeneration thats giving the smell.

Well done for keeping a straight face. I'd probably have laughed out loud!

And tell her does she know that her health is at risk because she's inhaling petrol and diesel gas emissions at her checkpoint the longer she keeps you there

Man11

Well you could of also asked the garda her name , badge number and garda station from where she is stationed . The have the right to ask for address etc . A few weeks ago I got breathalyse and she asked if I ever done it before I said no and the look I got over pure shock . But anyway there is feck all check points

Mervyn Skidmore

I was once told by a garda at a check point to sort out my tax. It was at the beginning of the month and the car was taxed till the end of the month. She insisted that the tax was out even after me telling her it wasn't. Eventually I said I'd get it sorted and just drive off. Some of them just won't admit when they are wrong.

Ken.

Muddy, If you get summonsed for speeding please please let me know. I'd love to see the Garda explain in court that she smelled that you were speeding. The boys with the hug jackets would be at the court in 5 minutes.

duffman3833

i was stopped on the day i passed my driving test at a checkpoint and the guard asked for my license but i just applied for it and all i got was the little slip of paper to prove i applied for it. Showed it to the guard and she said that i have 10 days to produce my license in garda station. So i said but what if i don't have it in 10 days. We all know how quick the Irish are at processing these things. Luckily she got distracted by another car and told me to go, not taking any details. I never did go down in the 10 days. Heck i got my license 3 weeks later

Man11

Mervyn Skidmore wrote: »

I was once told by a garda at a check point to sort out my tax. It was at the beginning of the month and the car was taxed till the end of the month. She insisted that the tax was out even after me telling her it wasn't. Eventually I said I'd get it sorted and just drive off. Some of them just won't admit when they are wrong.

some Gardaí are just plain thick and on a power trip

ohnonotgmail

Caliden wrote: »

Ignorant intimidation tactic.

No idea why it's done but I'd assume it's a power trip thing.

Feigning hysterical concern is a good one to wind them up.

"Smell from my car???! is it petrol? You smell petrol?"

And proceed to turn off car, take off seatbelt and get out.

especially funny if the car is a diesel.

Roger Mellie Man on the Telly

MuddyDog wrote: »

She then said, "Do you smell your car"

"Smell it? Oh yes officer-quite often, now you mention it. On occasion I like to dress as an air hostess and drag my testicles along the offside door surround". :eek:

pred racer

"Garda, exactly how fast did it smell like I was going?" :pac:

I doubt I could have kept a straight face

demanufactured

She was coming onto you.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Cerco

Why all the derogatory comments?
The Garda was right. The Op admits he was exceeding the speed limit as he turned the corner.
Maybe her comments were silly but her assessment of speeding was correct.

NickDunne

Cerco wrote: »

Why all the derogatory comments?
The Garda was right. The Op admits he was exceeding the speed limit as he turned the corner.
Maybe her comments were silly but her assessment of speeding was correct.

Conveniently missed the part where the op said they were doing the speed limit?

Assumptions don't stand up in court.

1/10 for trying. Next!

Car99

Cerco wrote: »

Why all the derogatory comments?
The Garda was right. The Op admits he was exceeding the speed limit as he turned the corner.
Maybe her comments were silly but her assessment of speeding was correct.

Thanks guard .

Arbiter of Good Taste

Cerco wrote: »

Why all the derogatory comments?
The Garda was right. The Op admits he was exceeding the speed limit as he turned the corner.
Maybe her comments were silly but her assessment of speeding was correct.

Please try again

Mint Sauce

May have been just to engage you in conversation, see how you will react, to see any signs in you voice, etc. Stopped at a PSNI check point a few months ago on the Derry Donegal boarder. When I eventually found my License, the officer claimed she had seen one of the credit card style ones before.

derm0j073

Cerco wrote: »

Why all the derogatory comments?
The Garda was right. The Op admits he was exceeding the speed limit as he turned the corner.
Maybe her comments were silly but her assessment of speeding was correct.

Do you smell something fishy about the OP ?

9935452

A friend was stopped on suspision of speeding at one stage.
The guard gave him the whole 'where are you going , coming from, what speed were you doing speech'.
He then got asked whats that on your dash,
The friend is argumentative at best and responded a 'dash cam and its recording sound as well as video'.
The guard told him to turn it off.
The friend refused to do so. He told the guard that as its a public place he is legally entitled to record, and its there for his and the guards protection and that it would be proof in court of improper conduct if my friend needed it .
The guard disgruntanly told him to move/drive on.

Same friend got stopped for speeding/no tax on a car he bought that day. Got involved in an argument with the guard. Ended up taking the guards details , Sent a letter of complaint to the guards superintendent . He ended up getting a letter of apology from the superintendent on how the guard had handled the matter and that no futher action would be taken against him

Another odd one.
I was stopped on the quad bike one day on a back road by an unmarked car with lights and siren. The guard in question thought he had caught me rotton.
Little did he know that the quad was registered , insured and taxed. He spent a good 20/25 minutes trying to figure it out in his head.
He admitted to me he was a member of the traffic core and didnt know you could register quads and tax them.

swarlb

9935452 wrote: »

A friend was stopped on suspision of speeding at one stage.
The guard gave him the whole 'where are you going , coming from, what speed were you doing speech'.
He then got asked whats that on your dash,
The friend is argumentative at best and responded a 'dash cam and its recording sound as well as video'.
The guard told him to turn it off.
The friend refused to do so. He told the guard that as its a public place he is legally entitled to record, and its there for his and the guards protection and that it would be proof in court of improper conduct if my friend needed it .
The guard disgruntanly told him to move/drive on.

Same friend got stopped for speeding/no tax on a car he bought that day. Got involved in an argument with the guard. Ended up taking the guards details , Sent a letter of complaint to the guards superintendent . He ended up getting a letter of apology from the superintendent on how the guard had handled the matter and that no futher action would be taken against him

Another odd one.
I was stopped on the quad bike one day on a back road by an unmarked car with lights and siren. The guard in question thought he had caught me rotton.
Little did he know that the quad was registered , insured and taxed. He spent a good 20/25 minutes trying to figure it out in his head.
He admitted to me he was a member of the traffic core and didnt know you could register quads and tax them.

Why would he have needed 20/25 minutes to figure out it was taxed ?

inforfun

swarlb wrote: »

Why would he have needed 20/25 minutes to figure out it was taxed ?

He had a cold.
Couldnt smell it, that it was insured.

endagibson

9935452 wrote: »

the quad bike

There's no such thing.

johnayo

9935452 wrote: »

A friend was stopped on suspision of speeding at one stage.
The guard gave him the whole 'where are you going , coming from, what speed were you doing speech'.
He then got asked whats that on your dash,
The friend is argumentative at best and responded a 'dash cam and its recording sound as well as video'.
The guard told him to turn it off.
The friend refused to do so. He told the guard that as its a public place he is legally entitled to record, and its there for his and the guards protection and that it would be proof in court of improper conduct if my friend needed it .
The guard disgruntanly told him to move/drive on.

Same friend got stopped for speeding/no tax on a car he bought that day. Got involved in an argument with the guard. Ended up taking the guards details , Sent a letter of complaint to the guards superintendent . He ended up getting a letter of apology from the superintendent on how the guard had handled the matter and that no futher action would be taken against him

Another odd one.
I was stopped on the quad bike one day on a back road by an unmarked car with lights and siren. The guard in question thought he had caught me rotton.
Little did he know that the quad was registered , insured and taxed. He spent a good 20/25 minutes trying to figure it out in his head.
He admitted to me he was a member of the traffic core and didnt know you could register quads and tax them.

Are you sure that was your friend?:D:D:D:D:D

MarkR

endagibson wrote: »

There's no such thing.

Yes there is. I've seen them. On the internet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-terrain_vehicle

*quotes wikipedia, internet goes wild

Joeseph Balls

Similar to the story about the Cop putting his hand on the bonnet and saying it's hot you must have been going very hard, until informed the engine is at the back of an mr2.
Its an old wives tale or every second boy racer has a friend with an mr2

endagibson

MarkR wrote: »

Yes there is. I've seen them. On the internet.

*quotes wikipedia, internet goes wild

There is no such thing as a quad bike.

FFS, not only can I not post URLs, I can't even quote a URL posted by someone else.

Atlantic Dawn

9935452 wrote: »

Another odd one.
I was stopped on the quad bike one day on a back road by an unmarked car with lights and siren. The guard in question thought he had caught me rotton.
Little did he know that the quad was registered , insured and taxed. He spent a good 20/25 minutes trying to figure it out in his head.
He admitted to me he was a member of the traffic core and didnt know you could register quads and tax them.

Why was that, could he not see the registration plate, lights, insurance and tax discs?

millington

I had a similar experience. Stopped at a checkpoint and told my car was burning and that he could smell it. Proceded to tell me my car was too loud.

Was a totally standard exhaust system with no holes or blowouts

9935452

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Why was that, could he not see the registration plate, lights, insurance and tax discs?

Registered quads are a strange one. Since the end of 2008 you cant register hondas/kawaskis/suzukis as the manufacturers wont supply the paperwork needed. Some cheap chinese ones you can though.
The guard in question had never seen a registered quad .
He saw the number plates tax disc and insurance disc but i believe what confused him was the quad was registered in the midlands, i was stopped in the southwest, insured by fbd and taxed privately. id say he thought i lifted the plates and discs off a car. I believe his colleague ran the plates and found out that it came back to a 'honda cycle'.
Also the quad had lights but no indicators. By law if they were fitted by the manufacturer they are legally needed, the quad never had indicators so not legally required.
Not been stopped since and ive had them on the road behind and in front of me a good few times since.

Atlantic Dawn

9935452 wrote: »

Also the quad had lights but no indicators. By law if they were fitted by the manufacturer they are legally needed, the quad never had indicators so not legally required.
Not been stopped since and ive had them on the road behind and in front of me a good few times since.

How would it be legally possibly to bring a vehicle on public roads with no indicators? I know some ancient classics wouldn't have them but that was another era.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Atlantic Dawn

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Interesting but would motorcycles not be required to have them or does the quad classify as a class below that?

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

9935452

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

This is where it gets more interesting. The quad is driven on a car license.
Regarding taxing it, it can be taxed privately or as a general haulage vehicle if it has a towbar . They used to let you tax it as an agricultural vehicle but not anymore.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

C.K Dexter Haven

Checkpoints can be an awfully strange place-I approached one a few of years ago- female guard (gender not really important, just stating the facts) was signalling me to stop- I stopped the car just short of where she was- came full on at me asking me why I stopped so suddenly, shouting at the top of her voice- then complained that there was a fierce smell of alcohol in the car (I was driving a few friends home around 11pm- they had a few pints- I wasn't drinking)- I asked her "is that the way to treat a designated driver?" - she calmed down.

Pathetic!

Stoned Since 2011

Start talking about riding that will throw a mix into the equation.

Graces7

Some years ago I got stopped on a back lane near Clonakilty. Young female Garda and there were two male Gardai chatting a hundred yards away. She was nervy and chatty and I think very new. Asked some odd ???s.. Had I been driving without my seat belt on? Told her I had undone it when I saw the road block. Where was I going? Why was there a sack of coal on my passenger seat? Finally she got round nervously to checking tax. I suppose they have to learn but it was so unprofessional.. Then there was the time near Glencolumcille I was out in the small hours and got stopped. Checking for drink driving..A plain clothes cop staggered over to my window, and when I opened it the whiskey fumes nearly knocked me out. I actually was so rattled I gave him a false address and he never checked the number plate... Never heard anything..