Can an FOI be made to establish the number of prosecutions at a certain location?

54and56

Hi all,

I live in an area where there is a very busy road and bus lane. Both sides of the road are very busy at rush hour and there is a solid white line all along the road from junction A to junction B.

Between junction A and B are the entrances to two buildings. Cars travelling in the direction of A -> B have to cross the solid white line to enter these buildings on the opposite side of the road.

The Gardai regularly set up traps for people skipping past traffic driving in the bus lane at rush hour along this small stretch of road (and rightly so) but I have never even once in 10 years of daily use myself seen them pay the slightest attention to road users breaking the solid white line to turn into these buildings. Cars constantly indicate right, stop and hold up traffic waiting for an opportunity to break the white line to enter the buildings. The white line is there (I assume) because it is deemed unsafe to turn right along this road (which it is given the volume of traffic both ways) and to keep traffic moving.

Is it possible to submit a Freedom of Information request to see how many prosecutions there have been over the last 10 years for breach of road traffic regulations involving the crossing of the solid white line at these two points on this particular road? Is that information likely to be available and if so made public via an FOI request?

Is it possible to ascertain why all Gardai I have ever seen on this road choose to ignore people constantly breaking the white line? Is adherence to solid white lines discretionary these days? Are Gardai obliged to do something when they observe the breaking of a white line or are they free to constantly ignore it? If so what is the point of having solid white lines and who, if anyone, is responsible for enforcement? I ask because one of the places people stop to breach the white line if just over the brow of a hill so on many occasions, particularly early morning (6-7am) when there is little traffic, I have have driven across the preceding junction at the top of the hill to be met by a stationary car turning right 75m down the hill and have had to either brake fairly hard or go into the bus lane to avoid hitting the stationary car.

Kristopherus

Is there any other way to access those buildings other than to cross the white line?

ohnonotgmail

you should be well able to stop in 75m if doing a reasonable speed.

54and56

Kristopherus wrote: »

Is there any other way to access those buildings other than to cross the white line?

Yes, approach from the opposite direction so you are turning left off the road straight into either building. Cars entering the stretch of road in the direction of A -> B have an earlier option to take a left which then leads down to the junction where they can turn right up the road in the B -> A direction and turn left straight into the two buildings without breaking the white line and holding up traffic etc. It takes 1-2 minutes longer as there is an extra junction be negotiated.

54and56

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

you should be well able to stop in 75m if doing a reasonable speed.

Correct, maybe it's a lot less than 75m I haven't measured it. You basically come over the brow of a hill and right in front of you is a stationary car waiting for traffic on the other side to clear so he/she can break the white line.

There's a 40km speed limit (which I do try to adhere to) on that road but at that speed it can be tricky to stop in distance from the brow of the hill to the stationary car, particularly if there is another car right behind and you want to avoid them hitting you. If you absolutely had to stop you could, no question but it may be at the expense of someone hitting you hence I have from time to time, possibly incorrectly, had to quickly veer left into the bus lane to effectively undertake the stationary car.

ohnonotgmail

if you are sticking to 40KmH you should be able to stop in 18m.

Carawaystick

The behaviour described, crossing a solid white line to enter or egress a premises is legal
SI 294/1964 S9

Carawaystick

The behaviour described, crossing a solid white line to enter or egress a premises is legal
SI 294/1964 S9

54and56

Carawaystick wrote: »

The behaviour described, crossing a solid white line to enter or egress a premises is legal
SI 294/1964 S9

Thanks Carawaystick, that's 100% clarified it for me. I stand (gratefully) corrected - http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1964/si/294/made/en/print#zzsi294y1964a9

GerardKeating

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

Correct, maybe it's a lot less than 75m I haven't measured it. You basically come over the brow of a hill and right in front of you is a stationary car waiting for traffic on the other side to clear so he/she can break the white line.

Forget the issues of the white line for now, if you come around a corner, over hill, and something is blocking the road, you should be able to stop, if not you are going too fast.

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

There's a 40km speed limit (which I do try to adhere to) on that road but at that speed it can be tricky to stop in distance from the brow of the hill to the stationary car, particularly if there is another car right behind and you want to avoid them hitting you. If you absolutely had to stop you could, no question but it may be at the expense of someone hitting you hence I have from time to time, possibly incorrectly, had to quickly veer left into the bus lane to effectively undertake the stationary car.

Sometime the speedlimit is too high for the road.

54and56

GerardKeating wrote: »

Forget the issues of the white line for now, if you come around a corner, over hill, and something is blocking the road, you should be able to stop, if not you are going too fast.

Agree 100% which is why I haven't thankfully had an accident in over 20 years driving but I know I'm not a saint either and have had a couple of close calls when something unexpected happened. Thankfully it usually served as a stark reminder that I should only ever drive as a speed where I can comfortably stop in the clear road ahead and not assume there isn't a broken down car or other obstacle immediately round the next corner or over the brow of the next hill.

GerardKeating wrote: »

Sometime the speedlimit is too high for the road.

Also agree, particularly in my experience down the country on back roads.

Victor

The Garda has substantial exemptions to the FOI act.

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

There's a 40km speed limit

Section 86 of the Road Traffic Act 2010 made such a speed limit legal: http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2010/act/25/section/86/enacted/en/html but I'm not aware of a single instance of this in the country. Where is this?

54and56

Victor wrote: »

The Garda has substantial exemptions to the FOI act.Section 86 of the Road Traffic Act 2010 made such a speed limit legal: http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2010/act/25/section/86/enacted/en/html but I'm not aware of a single instance of this in the country. Where is this?

The issue I wished to discuss (crossing a solid white line to enter a premises) was comprehensively dealt with by Carawaystick to whom I am grateful as I had misinterpreted the white line rule. I'm not interested in getting into a discussion of the specific road location.