Meanwhile on the Roads...

standardg60

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123190757#Comment_123190757

It was mentioned, both driver and passenger claimed it was sent way before that, so the judge said he couldn't take it into consideration, unlike being involved in the GAA, which continues to bewilder me.

Maybe if the victim was travelling to a GAA match rather than a soccer one he might have gotten more justice.

I assume Harte plead guilty to the careless driving charge, which meant we didn't hear any defence of why/how it happened.

Again I'll ask why a dangerous driving charge isn't brought in these cases, how is it not dangerous to drive across the wrong side of the road?

magicbastarder

i've often wondered about that. driving without due care and attention is a lesser charge than dangerous driving, but surely it also counts as dangerous?

i suspect it's down to whether the bad driving is wilful.

CramCycle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123191320#Comment_123191320

Would have been interesting to look at their google "where have I been" to see was the car in motion or not at the time. Colour me skeptical about the sent before they drove with such a short time frame.

Thelonious Monk

https://www.thejournal.ie/cyclist-in-his-90s-dies-after-collision-in-galway-6628552-Feb2025/

So awful. What a legend still using the bike in his 90s, I plan on doing the the same myself. My Dad is 75 this year and is out on the bike all the time with my mam.

Imagine making it to 90 and then going out like this. RIP comrade.

Seth Brundle

I decided to see what the good folk on Facecrap had to say about this incident and, as always, they didn't disappoint…

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123192686#Comment_123192686

Would they prefer he was driving ffs?

Saw some comments too you always get the "thoughts with the driver too" comments when chances are they weren't paying attention or drunk or speeding or god knows what.

magicbastarder

interesting comment from ian walker here:

Hurrache

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123191461#Comment_123191461

That, and it's seen as easier to get a conviction compared to dangerous driving. Just before Covid the gardai lowered a charge against a driver who glanced off me to driving without due care and attention and that was the reason they gave me.

JMcL

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123192686#Comment_123192686

At least the Journal seem to have had the decency to turn off their comments on the story in this case

Citizen Six

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123190757#Comment_123190757

Speed not a factor, but the car was on the other side of the road. How does that happen, when not speeding, unless you aren’t paying attention to the road?

hesker

This old article is still very relevant. Pity he hasn’t continued to post in more recent times as his views were very well put

https://thecyclingsilk.blogspot.com/2009/11/cycling-against-car-culture.html?m=1

magicbastarder

Maybe this could account for some of the upswing in road deaths!

https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/01.wnl.0001051276.37012.c2

Mefistofelino

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123197241#Comment_123197241

Only if " thundering, self-entitled pr1ckery" is a symptom.

Seth Brundle

Out with the club today around the Blessington lakes and as we headed towards Blessington for coffee, a driver overtook us despite oncoming traffic which included a garda car...

https://youtu.be/I1XSASLBO6Q?si=5_p7wyVG6O0N0MzR

When the overtaking driver was passing us, the garda driving flashed their lights at them. However, the passenger garda gestured towards me (I think) when I held out my right arm gesturing "are you doing nothing about that?"

Their gesture was to give what looked like the two fingers to us. Now maybe they meant something else (I'm really not sure what) but it was a strange gesture to make.

fat bloke

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123198913#Comment_123198913

Telling ye ye shouldn't be 2 abreast? Surely not. And yer man overtaking on a continuous white line?

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123199159#Comment_123199159

Some in the group suggested that may have been what he intended but it certainly was a strange way to show it. (You can be fairly sure that he would have only seen one meaning had I done the same gesture to him.)

magicbastarder

i double dare you to take that footage into a garda station to make a complaint about the driver who passed you.

Wishbone Ash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123191461#Comment_123191461

There used to be a charge of wreckless (reckless?) driving years ago but it was almost always reduced to dangerous driving. It must have been dropped from the list of charges as you never hear of it now.

MojoMaker

Dangerous driving is a severe enough conviction. It's higher on the charge list that Careless driving causing death, I seem to remember.

Seth Brundle

I see Ann Graham formerly of the NTA is to take the helm at the RSA (replacing Liz O'Donnell) . I wonder will she look to hit the ground running or will it continue to follow Sam Waide's masterful management path...

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025/02/25/former-nta-chief-anne-graham-appointed-to-head-road-safety-authority/

zell12

N17 near Claremorris 20/12-12/02, speeding tickets being revoked. GoSafe camera working correctly but not 'certified'.. 🙄

It is standard procedure that all cameras used for speeding detection have valid calibration certificates issued by GoSafe.

AGS is cancelling any fines and penalty points resulting from these notices.. refunds will be issued with penalty points removed where necessary.

230+ fines issued from the N17 speed camera system since 14 February are valid.

https://www.westernpeople.ie/news/this-error-is-very-much-regretted-garda%C3%AD-issue-statement-on-n17-mayo-speed-camera_arid-49646.html

plus, I know from using that road, that almost all traffic slows down because of camera

magicbastarder

Probably paywalled, but this line stuck out

Those included a man described as the main carer for his child with special-care needs. He was disqualified in 2013 from driving for 40 years, disqualified again in 2021 for 15 years and was before the court on charges including driving with no insurance.

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2025/03/01/a-day-at-a-district-court-more-than-40-per-cent-of-garda-time-is-taken-up-dealing-with-drunken-fools/

zell12

Is this standard for TII? Never heard of it before

TII implemented a full traffic management plan to divert all traffic over four hours off the N1 at Junction 18 onto a slip road to the checkpoint

https://www.thejournal.ie/two-people-to-be-deported-following-multi-agency-checkpoint-6642083-Mar2025/

Wildly Boaring

Doing It for years on M8 and M9 for years.

They use the laybys and full TM

Paddigol

Residents frustrated by lack of footpath in Enniscorthy | Irish Independent

Surely some kindly councillor could hand out a box load of car-proof hi-viz forcefield vests? Sounds to me like the usual case of zero forks given to road users/ commuters who aren't plonked behind a steering wheel.

nordieCyclist

One from the North.

I actually haven't looked at what other sentences have been given out for similar incidents, so I am not sure if this is overly lenient in comparison, but my gut tells me that it should me more, and its time that distracted driving, specifically mobile phone use should be on par with drink driving → that said there are some seriously lenient sentences handed out for that as well.

Also looking at the length of time that its taken to get to sentencing is shocking to me, not knowing what the court procedures are normally like, 5 years seems like an extraordinarily amount of time to have passed between the incident and the sentence.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy9dn4x1pyro

Thelonious Monk

does the law of close passing apply to motorists passing pedestrians too? i've never heard that it does but jesus there are some seriously narrow footpaths that are very busy around central dublin that i encounter while jogging.

the humpy bridge into ringsend, really really busy with pedestrians and barely enough room to get past each other.

the east link toll bridge. this one is especially horrible as barely 2 people can pass each other and it's a very busy bridge with huge trucks and traffic. how short sighted must the designers of that bridge have been?

east wall road is horrible too in parts, very busy with traffic but tiny footpaths.

there have been times where i've seen people nearly getting clipped by passing cars as they've stepped onto the roads to get around other walkers.

so it had me thinking it's a bit stupid having the rule for cyclists but not pedestrians.

Seth Brundle

The cycling legislation explicitly mentions cyclists (below) but I presume offences such as careless driving still apply:

(1) (a) A driver shall not overtake or attempt to overtake if to do so would endanger or cause inconvenience to a pedal cyclist.

(b) A driver shall not overtake or attempt to overtake if to do so would endanger or cause inconvenience to a person other than a pedal cyclist.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2019/si/495/made/en/print

JMcL

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123251599#Comment_123251599

That reads really strangely. Quickly putting on my IANAL hat, to me it reads - to paraphrase - "don't close pass a cyclist, oh and everybody else as well". What's the difference between a "pedal cyclist" and a "person" other than one has a bike under their bum? Is it to differentiate in terms of penalties or maybe just that a cyclist is in charge of a "vehicle"?

Homesick Alien

Last Sunday evening I was passing through the junction at Kill Ave/Mounttown Rd/Honeypark in Dun Laoghaire and there was a Garda car pulled over, a guy on an ebike being questioned and a lady on the ground being treated. This on the same corner that that poor girl was killed on her bike last year.