Meanwhile on the Roads...

That's a road I'd hate to cycle. I've driven it several times to get to/from Kenmare and it's a perfect storm of the worst aspects of R roads - mostly narrow, bendy, busy main route to a popular location, and impatient drivers.

RIP to the poor man.

every day on my commute there’s a section of road and there’s always a car waiting to overtake me (I’m cycling). The road is long enough for one car to overtake (if no oncoming cars). Nearly every time the first car overtakes me, a second car usually follows (glued to the rear bumper of the first car!).
This is bad enough but occasionally a THIRD car comes along and blindly follows the second car resulting in the oncoming cars having to pull over into the ditch.
it’s getting worse out there!

And I bet if you asked any one of those drivers why they were overtaking in such a manner, they would say they were "forced" to overtake because I was cycling too slow!

At 1.8m I'm pretty close to average height for an Irish man.

Generally speaking the contact point between me and vehicle categories are as follows:

*regular car: knee

*Small SUV type like XC60:hip

*Ford Ranger type:Gut height

Along with the slope of bonnet the contact point between vehicle and pedestrian is key in term of pedestrian movement after impact.

A big problem with heavy vehicle like the Ranger is the size requirements of the A pillars in order to support the vehicle in terms of roll over event. The human eye doesn't see great laterally and the bit nearest the frame (i.e. the A pillar, dash and roof) is in and area often missed even when a driver does look.

Given the increased risk (increased risk due to visibility impairment and also bonnet height) there is an argument for limitation on use or at the very least training in their use particularly vis a vis the increased risk to pedestrian particularly small ones

A big problem with heavy vehicle like the Ranger is the size requirements of the A pillars in order to support the vehicle in terms of roll over event. The human eye doesn't see great laterally and the bit nearest the frame (i.e. the A pillar, dash and roof) is in and area often missed even when a driver does look.

It's a problem on even more modest vehicles as weight has gone up. Our family car is a Ford SMax and the A pillar is huge, with the B pillar being fairly chunky. I was at a roundabout in it probably not long after we got it, and about to move off when I realised there was a lad on a bike that had been completely hidden by the pillar. I now make sure to move my head to make sure I've seen around them regardless of what I'm driving, but with the distracted 5h!t show that constitutes driving these days you'd imagine a lot of drivers would be oblivious

Is there a list of cars that are illegal to own here? I always figured as long as you paid the VRT you could bring it in.

I wonder if they paid for 4 parking spots

Was in a district court recently where a drink driving case happened to be running.

Garda gave very clear evidence of being alerted to early morning erratic driving, attending an observing erratic driving, approaching car smelling alcohol, gave all details of arrest, caution, sample, doctor attending in station etc etc.

No cross examination.

All other state evidence agreed Dr, other Garda, etc.

In layman's language Accused wasn't after a couple of pints, he was sh1tfaced.

Garda gave time of notification of erratic driving and arrest as being within a 10 mins window. He gave all other times regarding samples, doctor, charging etc.

He didn't give the precise time of observing the erratic driving, and Accused solicitor got a direction from judge; case dismissed.

A disgrace alright. What was the reason? A dot missing over an i or something? Motoring cases seem to be ones where the legal system fights tooth and nail to acquit.

It's a lot easier to get away with drink driving than people think. I've a neighbour who got away with it for about 5 years until they finally got her off the road. There was one week where she was caught three times, and one of those involved her still holding a mug of wine when she was stopped.

I also showed up as a witness in court, three times, against a drunk driver, and he just never showed up to court. Haven't heard anything in about two years.

So much wasted time and effort wasted for judges to just throw these cases out.

Would the fact they'd be classified as vintage make the difference? There are reductions on insurance, and emissions take into account the age (actually this is the case for non-vintage as well - a 2010 car won't be expected to meet the standards of a 2021 doing the NCT for the first time).

Again, no expert on this.