Dangerous Garda driving

jimbooth

Tonight was one of those nights I wished I had a dashcam to show the aggressive and dangerous driving by a squad car. They came speeding up behind me and overtook approaching a bend with oncoming traffic and cut right in in front of me and I firmly believe that if I didn't swerve into the hard shoulder they would have clipped the front of my car. Then they started aggressively tailgating the can in front before doing the exact same thing at the next bend with oncoming traffic again.
It was 21-15pm and it was very obvious that there was traffic coming around the bend on both occasions.
They then continued to aggressively tailgate the next car for at least 4 miles but the traffic was heavy and they didn't get a chance to pass untill they came to a dual carriageway.
They were not bluelighting so don't use the excuse they may have been on Garda business.
In my opinion it was just arrogant aggressive dangerous driving by the driver in questio

Kristopherus

And what has that to do with DIY Car Maintenance and Repair????????

biko

Nothing, moved to main forum.

savagethegoat

you don't know the circumstances, perhaps their lights had failed and someone was getting assaulted. Forget it. Move on

REXER

savagethegoat wrote: »

you don't know the circumstances, perhaps their lights had failed and someone was getting assaulted. Forget it. Move on

In reality, they do need to be held accountable for their actions. Dangerous driving is still dangerous driving, even if they are super citizens.

Or do you think that their overtaking and tailgating should be regarded as a lawful instruction to get out of the fecking way?

savagethegoat

REXER wrote: »

In reality, they do need to be held accountable for their actions. Dangerous driving is still dangerous driving, even if they are super citizens.

Or do you think that their overtaking and tailgating should be regarded as a lawful instruction to get out of the fecking way?

someone's opinion of their driving. Report them to the Commissioner , I don't see the point of slagging them off on here

BreadnBuddha

Who's to say this even occured? Some anonymous poster on the internet, with no proof of anything? Maybe it happened, maybe it didn't.

If the OP has a problem with how a Garda vehicle was being driven, make a report to the GSOC. If he was close enough to see the car tailgating a driver in front for 4 miles, he was close enough for long enough to get the reg.

REXER

savagethegoat wrote: »

someone's opinion of their driving. Report them to the Commissioner , I don't see the point of slagging them off on here

As opposed to your approach of coming on here and saying nothing to see here, move on?

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Next time you should team up with other motorists to perform a rolling road block to bring them to a gentle halt. Remove the offending Garda from the squad car and sit on his chest, thus allowing for a citizen's arrest, whilst an accomplice rings for Batman back-up. It's the only way anything is gonna change around here.

XR3i

you should have pulled over out of the way when you seen the blue lights

slimjimmc

jimbooth wrote: »

They were not bluelighting so don't use the excuse they may have been on Garda business.

There are occasions when it's tactically prudent to not turn on the blues in order to avoid alerting the target, eg when tailing a car or when trying to sneak up close enough to pounce. The lack of blue lights doesn't mean anything really.

Odelay

XR3i wrote: »

you should have pulled over out of the way when you seen the blue lights

There was no blue lights...

BorneTobyWilde

Doughnut shop closes at 21.30 .

BorneTobyWilde

slimjimmc wrote: »

There are occasions when it's tactically prudent to not turn on the blues in order to avoid alerting the target, eg when tailing a car or when trying to sneak up close enough to pounce. The lack of blue lights doesn't mean anything really.

No, they were guards, not cats.

punisher5112

You must drive as close to the left as possibly safe to do so.

If there is a hard shoulder one may use it when safe to do so to let car overtake safely.

I see so many wannabe cops holding up cars willing to do more then 80 in a 100 zone.

Yes op cops may have been going too fast and how do you know for sure it was a cop car ?? Was it marked.
Lot of unmarked and what was marked once get sold of sometimes retaining the antennas.

prinzeugen

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

No, they were guards, not cats.

If they get a report of say a burglary in progress, they will not use the blues & twos as it would warn the burglar's and any lookout's that they are on the way.

Its common sense.

jimbooth

It was a marked Garda car, it was on a main road, they were not sneaking up on anyone . I did get the reg and have reported it . I just wanted to vent my anger at their dangerous driving and aggressive behaviour, there was no reason for it and we were all travelling at the speed limit for the road, no reason to "keep left" especially approaching a blind bend where you could obviously see the lights of oncoming traffic.

9935452

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kud-3Eq2t7A

How about that one ?
50km zone and the car with the dashcam couldnt keep up with the garda car at 110kmph

BreadnBuddha

9935452 wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kud-3Eq2t7A

How about that one ?
50km zone and the car with the dashcam couldnt keep up with the garda car at 110kmph

What makes the arsehole with the dashcam think it's okay to speed?

Or you to hold that up as some example?

What the Garda was doing is open entirely to speculation. No facts are known, so the video proves nothing except that some clown thought it was okay to speed for the purpose of recording a marked Garda vehicle which is not obliged to obey the speed limit.

9935452

BreadnBuddha wrote: »

What makes the arsehole with the dashcam think it's okay to speed?

Or you to hold that up as some example?

What the Garda was doing is open entirely to speculation. No facts are known, so the video proves nothing except that some clown thought it was okay to speed for the purpose of recording a marked Garda vehicle which is not obliged to obey the speed limit.

Well this is a thread entitled 'dangerous garda driving' so i thought i would post it to see what people thought. I just find it ironic thats its a traffic core car too.
If any of us were caught doing 2.5 times the speed limit , it could be classed as dangerous driving.


And as you say yourself ' no facts are known' this also applies to the car following , he/she could be getting an escort , maybe a passenger in the car is being brought to hospital. who knows
You called the driver of the car behind an arsehole without knowing any of the facts

BreadnBuddha

9935452 wrote: »

Well this is a thread entitled 'dangerous garda driving' so i thought i would post it to see what people thought. I just find it ironic thats its a traffic core car too.
If any of us were caught doing 2.5 times the speed limit , it could be classed as dangerous driving.


And as you say yourself ' no facts are known' this also applies to the car following , he/she could be getting an escort , maybe a passenger in the car is being brought to hospital. who knows
You called the driver of the car behind an arsehole without knowing any of the facts

He is an arsehole. He's running a dashcam and posting footage to youtube with 'highway to hell' as the soundtrack. He's not getting an escort, as if he were he wouldn't have pulled up alongside the Garda car at the lights at the end.

If any of us drive at 2.5 times the speed limit we won't have a leg to stand on. A Garda driving a marked Garda car at least has the possibility of being able to justify their speed. A dashcam whore has none.

ba_barabus

BreadnBuddha wrote: »

He's running a dashcam and posting footage to youtube with 'highway to hell' as the soundtrack.

You sound like an angry priest

9935452

BreadnBuddha wrote: »

Who's to say this even occured? Some anonymous poster on the internet, with no proof of anything? Maybe it happened, maybe it didn't.

If the OP has a problem with how a Garda vehicle was being driven, make a report to the GSOC. If he was close enough to see the car tailgating a driver in front for 4 miles, he was close enough for long enough to get the reg.

BreadnBuddha wrote: »

He is an arsehole. He's running a dashcam and posting footage to youtube with 'highway to hell' as the soundtrack. He's not getting an escort, as if he were he wouldn't have pulled up alongside the Garda car at the lights at the end.

If any of us drive at 2.5 times the speed limit we won't have a leg to stand on. A Garda driving a marked Garda car at least has the possibility of being able to justify their speed. A dashcam whore has none.

You seem to be getting fairly upset at the thought that other people are questioning the guards driving dangerously.
Questioning the ops sincerity, If he had dashcam footage of the event , you would probably call him an arsehole too.
He could have been getting an escort , he might have pulled up beside them to get their attention, or to have a few words with them. Your words ' no facts are known'.


i like your wording 'possibility of being able to justify their speed' . lol
Sure they dont have to justify their speed because they are not obliged to obey the speed limit.

Are you a guard by any chance?

BreadnBuddha

9935452 wrote: »

You seem to be getting fairly upset at the thought that other people are questioning the guards driving dangerously.
Questioning the ops sincerity, If he had dashcam footage of the event , you would probably call him an arsehole too.
He could have been getting an escort , he might have pulled up beside them to get their attention, or to have a few words with them. Your words ' no facts are known'.


i like your wording 'possibility of being able to justify their speed' . lol
Sure they dont have to justify their speed because they are not obliged to obey the speed limit.

Are you a guard by any chance?

I'm not upset nor am I a Garda.

It's simple. Someone posts about a Garda doing XYZ in a car or on a bike and the moaners come out of the woodwork. It's the way of the internet.

Inevitable someone ends up linking to a video posted by some eejit on Youtube where they're blatantly breaking the law in order to record a Garda or other ES member quite possibly not breaking the law.

Everyone's an expert and a juror, right?

The average motorist has no idea what's going on and spend more time concerning themselves with an ES drivers actions than their own, including the OP.

If you see someone driving dangerously, steer clear. Don't follow closely to observe them tailgating another driver for miles. Don't speed up and drive 2.5 times the limit so you can record them on your dashcam.

Just show some cop-on.

ironclaw

9935452 wrote: »

And as you say yourself ' no facts are known' this also applies to the car following , he/she could be getting an escort , maybe a passenger in the car is being brought to hospital. who knows
You called the driver of the car behind an arsehole without knowing any of the facts

I'm pretty sure if they were getting an escort, they wouldn't upload a video of 'Garda speeding' as it would be a right kick in the face for the Gardai that helped them out. Getting an escort in Ireland would actually be quite a novelty and I'm sure they'd have a more suitable title and soundtrack. They also wouldn't be stopped at two sets of lights if being escorted, time critical etc. All told, its fairly idiotic to tail a Garda car at twice the speed limit. They have the law on their side to do so, the ambulance chaser doesn't. Garda are exempt from the RTA in the course of their duties. End of. Its the law and unfortuantely we all have to bide by it.

(And no, I amn't a Garda and not a fan of their driving either)

cletus

I'll put up a different one so, although I'll probably be accused of being an arsehole.

Around September direction last year I watched a traffic corp car (an estate actually) drive around the Bundle of sticks roundabout just outside Naas. The garda driving the car was in the wrong lane for the exit he took, didn't indicate, and was on his mobile

Just to pre-empt some comments, I do not have a problem with the gardai, I do not have dashcam footage, he did not have lights/siren on, he was not speeding, nor did he appear to be in pursuit, I am not aware of the material facts of the particular aspect of the job that he was going about on that day.

carzony

Gardai are exempt from the road traffic act excluding drug/drink driving while on duty. There is no excuse for bad/dangerous driving but complaining about the talking on phones, speeding is a waste of time.

fullstop

REXER wrote: »

In reality, they do need to be held accountable for their actions. Dangerous driving is still dangerous driving, even if they are super citizens.

Or do you think that their overtaking and tailgating should be regarded as a lawful instruction to get out of the fecking way?

Agreed, I had a prick in an unmarked Volvo nearly drive through the back of me on the M8 one morning. I pulled out to pass someone when he was a couple of hundred metres back, was overtaking at around 130 and he was so close i could nearly see the snots up his nose. I gestured for him to pull back and then he puts on the blues after he passed me as if that makes driving like an aggressive prick ok.

Tigger

Blues make everyone brake when they finally see them so often are flicked on and off when trying to get somewhere fast
I'm not a guard

_Brian

Shock horror, some Garda who are just people drive dangerously occasionally, maybe, because op doesn't know the context.
Rabble, rabble, rabble just another thread finding reason to give out about guards.

I'm driving over 20 years, near all jobs I've had involve being on the road driving for a living. Can't say I've ever seen Garda abusing their position on the road or driving dangerously. They have a job to do that sometimes involves getting from a to b quickly.

It's a thankless enough job without moany holes banging on about every little thing.

Provide evidence and make a complaint or get over it and Move on.

jimbooth

Complaint made and substantiated by other drivers .
The Garda was not on route to any call, was just heading back into City . They are not allowed to drive in such an aggressive manner under any circumstances and are bound by the same driving laws as any other driver except when an emergency calls for the blue lights to be used, then they must proceed with caution and not in such a manner as to force other drivers into dangerous manoeuvres such as driving into oncoming traffic or onto substandard sections of road.

cml387

BreadnBuddha wrote: »

Just show some cop-on.

Nice one centurion.

b_mac2

jimbooth wrote: »

Complaint made and substantiated by other drivers .
The Garda was not on route to any call, was just heading back into City . They are not allowed to drive in such an aggressive manner under any circumstances and are bound by the same driving laws as any other driver except when an emergency calls for the blue lights to be used, then they must proceed with caution and not in such a manner as to force other drivers into dangerous manoeuvres such as driving into oncoming traffic or onto substandard sections of road.

Too much time on your hands there, obviously.
Hope it's not the same cop who might have to help you some day.

jimbooth

And I hope it's not the one who performs the same dangerous manoeuvre and crashes head on into a loved one, maybe yours !

jimbooth

Any mods on ? I think it's time to close this . Thanks

unkel

fullstop wrote: »

Agreed, I had a prick in an unmarked Volvo nearly drive through the back of me on the M8 one morning. I pulled out to pass someone when he was a couple of hundred metres back, was overtaking at around 130 and he was so close i could nearly see the snots up his nose.

Not blaming you but that's a classic case of lack of training leading to incompetent motorway driving

One needs to check not only the distance of the vehicle behind you when deciding to overtake, but also their speed

MarkR

jimbooth wrote: »

Any mods on ? I think it's time to close this . Thanks

Did you hear anything back about your complaint?

_Kaiser_

jimbooth wrote: »

Complaint made and substantiated by other drivers .
The Garda was not on route to any call, was just heading back into City . They are not allowed to drive in such an aggressive manner under any circumstances and are bound by the same driving laws as any other driver except when an emergency calls for the blue lights to be used, then they must proceed with caution and not in such a manner as to force other drivers into dangerous manoeuvres such as driving into oncoming traffic or onto substandard sections of road.

I encountered 3 boys in a marked Garda jeep doing much the same on the M7 inbound one morning a while back just after the Carlow merge. Anyone who drives that road regularly will know it gets progressively busier at that point yet these 3 were aggressively tailgating, weaving over the centre line and basically bullying people out of their way.. no lights or sirens on.

So I took the reg and rang the local stations who couldn't tell me where these lads were based, rang traffic corps and even HQ to no avail. The typical closed-ranks disinterested attitude was present and correct though.

On another occasion a few years back I was heading out the M3 after work one evening and just outside Dunshaughlin I see a squad car flying up the road - towards me in the hard shoulder!! Angry phone calls to Dunshaughlin and Navan followed but the answer was that they were chasing a car doing the same thing?? Now I joined the M3 from the M50/Blanch and something like that you wouldn't miss - but even if it WAS true, the correct thing would be to radio ahead to block off the ramps and intercept at the toll.. not put other motorists in danger themselves.

In short, AGS can and will do whatever they want and have it setup in such a way that making a complaint is near on impossible.

It's not a professional, competent police force we have.. it's a keystone cops brigade for the most part.

bear1

I wonder, if you called up and instead of saying it's a police car just reported it for dangerous driving and gave the direction would it change anything?