Fines for speeding, phone use, no belts set to double

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119393152#Comment_119393152

I think there's bit more to it...

Of the 387 driver and motorcycle driver fatalities from 2013-17 for whom a record of their pre-collision actions is available, 24.5% were exceeding the speed limit or driving at an unsafe speed for the road or prevailing conditions.

Padraig Mor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119393239#Comment_119393239

Driving at an unsafe speed does not necessarily mean (and frequently does not mean) exceeding the speed limit, which is what the fines are for. So you can be driving at a speed unsafe for the conditions, but you will still not be fined. Much of it is down to lazy policing, and it's unfortunate that the RSA, Gardai and politicians (deliberately?) conflate the two.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119393038#Comment_119393038

OK I stand corrected. The private company made 24 million Euros in its first year, then became a private company.

Like I said, I have NEVER seen a parked Garda vehicle on the M6 or M7 of the Limerick to Cork Road where they would be most welcome.

After 40 years driving, I have no penalty points or speeding tickets

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119393074#Comment_119393074

There used to be about a dozen or so but only three had film in them (you never knew which ones though). I recall reading an article about a young woman from Leixlip who had started driving and got caught going past the camera opposite the Spa Hotel on the old N4 every day for a week. The article quoted her saying how she didn't know it was there because she was focused on merging (which was nonsense given that the camera was maybe 500m-1km from the old (short) slip road.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119393152#Comment_119393152

Of those 95%, how many were made bigger incidents because of speed?

Seth Brundle

Still don't see this happening...

https://twitter.com/TonightVMTV/status/1552051280608100355

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119393262#Comment_119393262

You seemed to be implying that speed wasn't a significant factor in road safety. It obviously is.

CramCycle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119393262#Comment_119393262

You can be fined and FPN'd for driving without reasonable consideration. You can also face a court date fo numerous variations on this in what you have described.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119393482#Comment_119393482

a lot of people don't seem to realise how significant speed is in terms of avoiding collisions; in that distance required to brake *squares* with speed (reaction time aside). if you emergency brake from 120km/h, nearly one third of the distance you cover is spent slowing from 120km/h to 100km/h.

Flinty997

Which is a problem if its inappropriate for the conditions. But less a issue otherwise. hence why motorways are safer. They also have crash dividers etc.

magicbastarder

one very significant thing which makes motorways safe is that there's no oncoming or crossing traffic, so reaction times and braking distance are less constrained.

what i was getting at is that while speed may not be a causal factor in a collision, lower speeds simply mean less severe and fewer collisions.

thinkabouit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119393231#Comment_119393231

I would feel very hard done by if I got fined for going 122kph on the motorway.

I can be doing 119kph the whole time on my journey until that speed camera or gardai catch ya at the wrong place at the wrong moment.

magicbastarder

does that happen? being done for doing 122 in a 120 zone?

creedp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119393262#Comment_119393262

Speed limits are just arbitrary figures plucked out of the sky many decades ago and remain sacrosanct ever sense. If speeds limits were objectively set to max Road safety the limits for trucks would be a lot lower than for cars. There are people on here, always the same, baying to throw the book at a car driver doing 81kph in an 80 zone because they are somehow going to automatically mow down the cyclists but would clap the back of a truck driver careering along at 80kph on the same road with 40 ton behind him. As more reasonable contributors have pointed out, context is very NB for road safety rather than slavishly referring to arbitrary speed limits.

In any case we are required to abide by the rules and laws of the State or pay the consequences if caught not complying. Hand on heart the vast majority of motorists will have broken speed limits from time to time but fortunately only a small minority will have paid a price for it.

dmakc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119393964#Comment_119393964

If your speedometer reads <130kph you should be safe.

Stovepipe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119388176#Comment_119388176

anecdote time: a friend of a friend ,who is a Garda Sergeant, went out onto the M50 with a car equipped with then new ANPR tech. Within minutes, it had "pinged" four cars for either no tax/insurance or NCT so they spent the shift processing four cars, by hand, back at the station. Fines sent out on paper,etc. The gardai have the tech to process every car on the road instantly but the fining/punishment/court system would probably explode. I suspect that the EU wants the Govt to bring all roads policing up to EU standards so that all processing is instantaneous. You break a speed limit under the eye of a camera or cop car and the fine will be waiting for you when you get home.

creedp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119394037#Comment_119394037

Question is if you are breaking the 120kph speed limit by 2kph are you at a significantly higher risk of killing or maiming someone?

creedp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119393612#Comment_119393612

That's a pragmatic response to the problem. Instead of really tackling the causes of accidents we will reduce the speed limit so that the consequences of inaction are somewhat reduced

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119394297#Comment_119394297

They are very rarely "accidents"!

magicbastarder

There are people on here, always the same, baying to throw the book at a car driver doing 81kph in an 80 zone

i don't recall seeing this sort of response? a shrug, a 'you play with fire' response maybe, but not wanting to 'throw the book at them'.

thinkabouit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119394037#Comment_119394037

I'd be shocked if I passed a garda or speedvan doing 130km and there wasn't a fine in the post a few days later.

Is there anything to be said for the increase in accidents because of our increase in population?

Seth Brundle

I'd be shocked if I passed a garda or speedvan doing 130km and there wasn't a fine in the post a few days later.

That isn't what @dmakc posted. Your speedo will (by law) not under-read your speed so if anything a displayed 130km/h will be anywhere up to 10% lower than that.

Is there anything to be said for the increase in accidents because of our increase in population?

I don't think so. Speeding is generally a conscious decision made by an individual usually beause there is a very low likleihood of being caught. We now have many more drivers on the roads and pretty much no enforcement so it is inevitable that most drivers will speed.

creedp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119395246#Comment_119395246

Also modern cars are far safer and refined and provide a very cosseted ride compared to cars even from a decade ago. Doing a 130kph on a motorway in a modern car fells likes you are just ticking over.

I don't think all cars read 10% over GPS speed. I've a diesel which reads about 125kph at 120kph GPS speed while my leaf will read approx 135kph at 120kph gps

magicbastarder

the regs state the speedo must not underreport speed, and can overreport speed to a max of110% of actual speed, plus 10km/h.

so at an actual speed of 120km/h, your speedo could report between 120km/h and 142km/h.

Kaisr Sose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119394037#Comment_119394037

Is it not part of thre problem of using a speed limit as a target to reach.

I say keep the needle under the limit and you have nothing to worry about. Every second does not count.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119396944#Comment_119396944

I had a typo in my post. Speedos must not over-read. If your speedo says you are doing 130km/h then your actual speed must not be over that figure.

magicbastarder

i think you were correct in your first post; "I had a typo in my post. Speedos must not over-read." they are allowed do this; stating you're doing 130 when you're actually doing 120 is over-reading, as i'd assume the phrase works.

Macy0161

I can nearly guarantee what day of the week the go safe van will be in our village.

Enforcement is the only thing that is going to change behaviour, and that means much much more camera enforcement - speeding; average speed; red lights. But even our Road Safety Authority isn't calling for this, bizarrely.

The other thing that could really help change the culture is a portal to upload dashcam/ bikecam/ cyclecam/ pedestrian footage. Not only driving behaviour, but parking behaviours too.

There's no political will though, even from the Independent State Agency for whom it is supposed to be their raison d'etre. Too much victim blaming handing out hi viz to be done....

CramCycle

Look at the Speed van on the N11 at Stillorgan or Galloping Green. Everyones speed drops to 60kmph. So they do work. I often hear people giving out that it is too slow but they forget that there are numerous schools, resedential areas, traffic lights, footpaths, more things than a motorway to focus on at one time and while you can drive at 100kmph, the danger posed if something untoward happens is not only magnified by the speed but also by the locality and likelihood of a vunerable road user or other group being nearby.

But again, say this to people and they think its just a trick by the Gardai to line their pockets. The sheer stupidity of this. Gardai don't want to be handing out fines, the paperwork is a pain in the hole. What they want is to not have to be there. They don't get a bonus, they don't get a promotion for traffic violations caught and anyone purporting that they do is living in la la land. They just want to do something else and not have that something else be a fatality.