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

Make the request ASAP before footage is deleted - give bus number, place, time, and a description of yourself so they can ID you in the footage.

https://www.dublinbus.ie/Privacy/Making-a-Subject-Access-Request/

Bus drivers and HGV drivers must have a Certificate of Professional Competency and do regular training courses in order to keep the certificate. In the case of Dublin Bus, these training courses are on an annual basis, afaik. While I'm not aware of the content of these courses, it is somewhat more 'professional' than a basic '"lessons, test, done for life" such as a taxi driver, van driver or average Joe car driver.

I was questioning the fact that those drivers were more "professional". Leaving out bus drivers, as far as I know, taxi drivers and delivery drivers (the other driving professions, as such) don't get any more training than anyone else with a licence. You might expect them to be better drivers (whatever that might mean), but what is the higher standard we expect from a taxi driver over any other saloon driver on the road?

Are there things that non professional drivers can do on the road that we will excuse, that we wouldn't excuse for a taxi driver?

Thanks, to update I got a call from the investigating Garda in Bridewell Station (I think) a few days ago who advised there was no CCTV at that junction and that any cameras in the area were for traffic flow monitoring. Ok, whatever, I'd lost interest at that stage with the he said she said argument and no means of proving the incident. Garda did say the van was registered down the country so I guess that gives such drivers a free pass for bad driving in the big smoke when out of their comfort zone. In conclusion Garda was to ring the registered driver with a warning but whether that actually happens I have my doubts (do Gardaí pull phone numbers from associated motor tax payment logs as I'm not aware where else driver's phone numbers are stored?). I wasn't interested in pursuing it any further since no simple means of reprimanding a driver and no injury but at least there's an incident recorded against the registration.

Garda also said it's better to report such incidents at the applicable station as he was only getting the TrafficWatch report nearly two weeks after the incident. Ok fair point but what then is the purpose of TrafficWatch if not a convenient means of reporting traffic incidents since it's apparently not fit for purpose?

A few months ago I spent approximately 90mins in Store Street over two visits reporting a more serious incident involving a taxi driver on Aston Quay (gave the details in a post here at the time), I got a text message and an unexpected letter in the post with pulse numbers and what not. After all that the incident was then transferred to Pearse Street station and from there the initial Garda wanted me to call in to report the incident again but she was only available after 19:00 for a few days and then on leave for two weeks. Incident was thereafter transferred to another Garda who was very helpful and following a couple of updates advised he had the driver call into the station to give a statement and had also tracked down and spoken to his fare paying passenger. I did have a missed call or two around the time but haven't heard anything more on the incident since so not sure what if anything ever happened.

I really need to get cameras for the bike as your word is literally useless without an independent witness. I have a front and rear facing dashcam for the car but since I do more mileage per year on the bike I need to get that prioritised. Pretty difficult to get a good but yet reasonable camera for the bike though, I had the search narrowed to the Ghost Drift X a while back but never pulled the trigger.

Jaysus. The neck on that driver.

So, the "professional driver" thing is a bit of a mish mash. Some of them have ongoing traing, some of them don't. Some have separate permits/licences, some don't.

The reality is, there isn't two levels of safe driving on the road, one for professionals and one for social/recreational/commuting/whatever.

There is safe driving, and unsafe driving (I'm aware that there are levels of unsafe), and everyone behind the wheel of a vehicle should be held to the same standard.

I'm still not sure what the "higher standard" would constitute? What would it look like?

So, we're back to looking at harsher penalties for breaking those laws, rather than a more stringent set of laws for those drivers

Not really. They're two different things, to my mind. The inital calls were for "more stringent rules", not more punishment

Comparing 'professional' drivers with 'professional' carpenters is a poor analogy. A carpenter is judged on his work. If he's shoddy, he's unlikely to get further work. A truck driver is not judged on how he makes the journey to his delivery point. He's judged on making good time, not missing the ferry, not missing his delivery slot at the warehouse, not missing out on the back load etc. Unfortunately, there is a temptation to cut corners. This is especially true of tipper truck drivers who are generally paid per ton dropped so there is always a temptation to hammer along and squeeze in an extra load every day. I'm not excusing the above but merely pointing out that calling someone 'professional' has nothing to do with driving skills.

Someone else said that artic drivers should be held to higher standards than taxi drivers. It could be argued that taxi drivers carry much more precious cargos than artic drivers.

I know. I was just highlighting the fact that many people look on taxi drivers as people who drive around in empty vehicles.

Yeah, he almost hits him. Then that cyclist went out in front until the cycle lane begins.