The Garda's and Irish Law - What a Joke.

daveg

About 2 years ago my parents were driving to a friends house (out in the country). My dad is disabled and is in a wheelchair. They were driving along a small road when some c*nt came flying towards them. My dad pulled up on the ditch knowing that this guy was not going to stop. Next news the fu*ker had smashed into them at about 50 mph. If you can visualise he had crashed into about a third of my parents car headon... in other words the water tank in my dads car was pushed up near my dads legs. Thanks god my parents wern't hurt but they were very shuck up. My mum got out and went to talk to the guy. It became apparent very quickly he was locked. He tried to give his insurance details and my mum said that they should call the garda's.. and at this point the guy went mad... He threatened my parents and my mum had to lock herself and my dad in the car. He then got into his own car.. and reversed back and forth to detach his car - which could have very easily caused injury to my dad.. My parents were very close to their friends house and mum walked down to ring the garda's. A cop arrived about an hour later.. took a statement and he said "I know who your talking about... hes been done for drink driving 3 times", and off he went to the guy's house. What transpired was that the guy could not be done for drink driving because he had left the scene (and he had given his insurance details). My parents were so shuck up that they gave (as the garda's put it) "weak statements" which then led to them not even prosecuting for dangerous driving (or perhaps because of the paperwork). What a crowed of c*nts. You would not believe how much this messed up my parents lives - I dont want to go into too much detail. It went to court about 3 months ago and (thank god) my parents won and his insurance company had to caugh up but it was by no means any compensation for what they had been through.

Xterminator

Thats a very sad story, and you have my sympathy.

But surely you can see that the guards are restrained by the law in these cases. To blame this on the guards is shortsighted, like blaming the messanger for the message.

The situation your parents faced stinks, but it was the legal system that failed them, not the enforcers!

Do you remember all the opposition to the change in drink driving limits, when gvnmt faced a lot of vocal opposition to cutting the limit to where it is now. I remember country people on the news saying it would 'destroy the fabric of country life' etc.

Thats just one example of how difficult it is for the gvrnmt to change the way the system works.

X

daveg

Xterminator - I take your point and to a certin extent I agree. But I had ring the cop who was involved about 30 times (and Im not exaggerating) to find out if they were going to prosecute this prick or not. When I finally got as hold of him he told me that my parents statements were "too week" to prosecute for dangerous driving. However I agree that the guarda's do have one hand tied behind their balls on the other issues.

seamus

daveg, that's really tough, but that's life, especially in the country.

about 25 years ago my parents were driving along a country road in my dad's mini, at night (it was when they were only young) and out of nowhere, a guy on a motorbike appears, no lights on, and flying along, my dad was in the middle of turning right, and bang! the motorcyclist hits them and ends up on the ground. My mum (who's a nurse) makes him comfortable, etc, but he stinks of alcohol - he was locked! So the gardai arrive, blah-de-blah cart the motorbike guy off to hospital, but don't take a breath sample.

So at the end of the day, there's no proof that the guy on the motorbike had no lights on (his bike was wrecked) or that he was drunk. At the court hearing, some random Garda, who was never at the scene, turns up and swears he was the first Garda there. The actual Garda never turned up. The motorcyclist turns up, claims he was at a friend's house, totally sober, and had his lights on. My parents word -v- his word. Liability is forced on my dad, and his insurance co. cough up. The judge was even considering convicting him of dangerous driving, but then my mum lost the rag (and nearly got arrested for contempt of court) and the judge decided not to convict him.

So, even though my dad had done nothing wrong, it was just an unfortunate chain of events that somehow turned the legal system against him. Nothing can be done about it, that's life, **** happens.

Incidentally, my mum's brother-in-law, a few weeks later, overheard a colleague bragging about how he had escaped death. He claimed he was about to get a lift home with his motorcyclist mate, who was locked, when he changed his mind, and then the mate ended up hitting a car. Turns out to be the same guy, but because it's all hearsay, it's useless.

SYL

We've had two incidences. First one was about 4 years ago, the day after we had new senator doors and windows put in, the back door was forced and the house was burgled (not much taken, but pretty messed up). Guards arrived and checked out the house, didn't bother dusting for prints or anything, took some statements and left. And thats the last we seen of them for that. In four years, they never contacted us about it, not even to go over the bloody case or anything.
Just lately, some little scummers tried to rob my mums car from in front of the house. Dad had been working on it so the thing couldn't start but the little feckers pushed it down the road and tried to start it there, but failed. Cops called my mum the next morning to say that they had found the car at the entrance to the estate we live in, we brought the car back up (ignition ripped apart) and the cop then proceeded to tell my mum that he knew who did it and that a lot of people had their cars taken, but couldnt' do anything about it without catching them in the act???? Since then, another neighbour had their car taken and completely totalled, but again, cops don't do anything.
Is this bloody pathetic or what? Where I'm from, they spend all their time talking to the bouncers outside the junior nightclub, clearing out pubs after hours and looking for drunk drivers. And pretty much nothing else, they are the epitome of the bloody keystone cops, inept and incapable of doing any real work. I know that catching drunk drivers is important as they are a danger to others and themselves, but for repeat incidents like the car theft, you would really think that they would try to do something about it.
I personally think that they are overpaid wasters, its not like they are dodging bullets out here in County Meath, is it???
Oh yeah, and I know who took my Mums car too, thats the funny thing. So much for confidential information eh? So, if you live in the athboy area of county meath and have your car taken, joyriden and trashed, go out to the stock car racing on a sunday and look for a bunch of 4 16 year olds!!!! I know I will be soon.