Near Misses Volume 2 (So close you can feel it)

Seth Brundle

Seemingly they need to be able to download the footage themselves. My Masters in IT now seems a bit pointless!

DaveyDave

They'd have more free time if they actually did their job rather than all this arsing around. Two of my complaints went nowhere because I was the passenge and they wanted a statement from the driver. Inconsistent rules are ridiculous. People are really going out of their way to save footage, call traffic watch, get to the Garda station then also manage to work around the Garda's random shift schedule and neverending annual leave. There's a complete lack of road policing as it is and next to no Gardai on the road (yet I've been stopped numerous times by them for "mistaken identity" while driving home from work)

That was a particularly bad pass. Driving way above the limit, undertaking, close pass, crossing solid white line, bus lane...what more do they want?

Mr. Cats

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118857180#Comment_118857180

The comments under the YouTube video are just depressing. Fair play to you for staying civil to that. Theres zero understanding how dangerous it was to you or maybe they understand and don’t give a flying fvck

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118966219#Comment_118966219

I had similar from them before, where they wanted "door to door journey footage " for particular incidents reported. I explained repeatedly by email why this was a spectacularly dumb request and asked them for written confirmation of their policy and they eventually backed down.

bazermc

Very close pass today. Don’t have camera.

Caught up with car at lights. Car was at the top of the queue. Woman in the car with head down on the phone. Didn’t say anything sure what’s the point. Anyway lights change and my new friend didn’t move for a good while. Queue cars behind her lashing the horn on.

I guess she wasn’t in that much of a rush.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118970506#Comment_118970506

The point of saying something is to make it less likely that she'll do the same thing again tomorrow.

crosstownk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118966291#Comment_118966291

I doubt they give a flying fcuk about all that when they put out a plea for dash camera/video footage of incidents they 'want' to investigate.

It seems to me that they make it as difficult as possible in the hope you'll give up and relieve them of the burden .......

.....or maybe I'm just cynical in my old age.

Seth Brundle

At the end of the call where the garda requested my cameras (followed by my questioning this given previous successful reportings & convictions) the garda said that even though he had previously checked with the Traffic Divisikn, he would check with a colleague who is processing this one. He was to call me back soon after - that was two days ago!

Cabaal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118976709#Comment_118976709

I'm curious what they do if the dashcam is built into a car, impound the car while the access and download the footage?

MojoMaker

These days anyone half decent with a computer and the right software can easily manipulate a video and present it out of context. I'd imagine that's why AGS generally seeks source footage from a sequence of recordings directly from a camera.

Seth Brundle

The video is presented as a back up to my statement. It is not evidence in itself.

The logic being applied by AGS here would be similar to attempting to claim that a murder suspect could go free because the cameras weren't supplied along with a witness statement

MojoMaker

Well...no.

The point being that if you're going to tender video footage to back up an argument there's a reasonable expectation that the Garda can establish that it's unmodified and 'authentic' - no?

Otherwise you could invent a narrative to match a piece of doctored footage in the hope that it would be self-corroborating.

And, yes, stranger things have happened, and happen, quite frequently!

Seth Brundle

But merely the presence of the footage being on the camera does not mean that it wasn't doctored.

Most cameras nowadays use a form of SD card so in theory the footage may not even have originated on any camera I hand over.

Pawwed Rig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118977449#Comment_118977449

I have seen police often use the threat of confiscation of mobile phones for 'evidence' where people are videoing them against their wishes. This would seem to be similar in that they are 'threatening' to confiscate cameras to deter you from asking them to pursue something like this. Soul destroying tbh.

Might be worth sending to a TD who is a cycling advocate?

magicbastarder

It's very difficult to edit video on a convincing way. Some movie makes with massive budgets still struggle with that. And as SB mentioned, the primary evidence is the statement, with the video to corroborate.

DaveyDave

If they didn't have video footage they would just take his word for it so I'm not sure why having video evidence to backup a statement is suddenly an issue. They're hardly suggesting they edited the video so the car was in the bus lane while also altering their real life cycling behaviour to make it look like something was going on.

I'd be taking this further, superintendents, local politicians etc. Not sure how useful he would be in this sort of situation but Paul Gogarty has been really helpful for myself and other residents in the area, he's one of the few politicians actually living in the area.

MojoMaker

Since when is a statement evidence of anything (in any walk of life)?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118977828#Comment_118977828

Since forever?

In every single courtroom/legal/police drama movie, TV show or book, when someone takes an oath and stands up in court to talk about the crime that was committed, it's called "giving evidence". This applies over here as well, not just in the states: https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/justice/witnesses/rules_relating_to_your_evidence.html

A firsthand, eyewitness account given under oath has been accepted as evidence by the courts since they were formed. How else do you think cases were tried before the advent of photography and video cameras?

DaveyDave

It's been evidence enough for people, including myself, to make statements without video footage.

Hurrache

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118977363#Comment_118977363

How would physically having the camera prove of disprove any of this?

MojoMaker

Ah sorry, so we're in court now. Prior to court it's just an allegation, correct? And obviously an eye witness account is something other than your own, because, hey-ho, we all have agendas, right?

Liam O

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118978565#Comment_118978565

Someone saying that they seen something happen is obviously what you would use. Then cross examine the other account and make a decision based on that. This happens outside of court too, what do you think a detective does?

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118977828#Comment_118977828

the 'in any walk of life' is doing some weird heavy lifting there, because a statement in the context we're talking about here is a very specific use of the word. a statement made to a garda is a legal document, and making a false statement is a criminal offence punishable with jail time.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118978565#Comment_118978565

Ah, sorry, so we're backtracking now and trying to pretend that "in any walk of life" excludes the legal profession, correct?

fatbhoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118966291#Comment_118966291

Not worth the floppy it was written on. 🤣

Dr_Colossus

Haven't seen this recent UK conviction mentioned in this thread. Interesting case and initially thought it was quite harsh and certainly not anything that would have received such a fine and points here. Hope the Gardaí are taking notes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhW08Z5wyqA

tnegun

Another day another dope I'm not sure how I could have taken more of the lane https://streamable.com/hmgiqc not only was the pass here completely pointless had they waited 5 seconds the road was wide enough to pass they then turned into an estate so were almost home!

magicbastarder

the motorist in question either did that deliberately, and deserved more than the punishment received, or managed to cross the white line *accidentally* with oncoming traffic, and deserved more than the punishment received.

DaveyDave

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118981438#Comment_118981438

You're not the first person I've seen get passed like that there. It's such a large junction they could have easily went wide so they had a straighter entry into the lane.

If that was a car dashcam filming he likely have lost a wing mirror. As the guy in the video mentioned if he hadn't crossed the line it wouldn't have been prosecuted.

If that was deliberate which I think it was, what was the objective? ah I'll show these cyclists and give them a scare? Yeah all fun and games till you clip one and someone is dead. It's unbelievable how dehumanised we have become in the eyes of some.