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Meanwhile on the Roads...

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1…969799101102…111

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    #2942
    Tenzor07
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,938 ✭✭✭Tenzor07


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124463429#Comment_124463429

    So she got 60 months, but guarantee she'll be out in less than 24 months on appeal if even that long, pleading "family life" and all that…



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    #2943
    Thelonious Monk
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,514 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124464452#Comment_124464452

    So she can get back to being a terrible mother that will traumatise her kids that will turn out to be lunatics when they're older, yay



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    #2944
    CramCycle
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 27,129 Mod ✭✭✭✭CramCycle


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124463059#Comment_124463059

    Not that long ago, just pre COVID I passed a UCD professor correcting papers in the bus lane on the N11, she was moving and about to turn left. It stuck vividly in my mind for many reasons, but on a personal note it was the perfect example of why I never use bike lanes at those junctions on the N11.



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    #2945
    Dr_Colossus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,463 ✭✭✭Dr_Colossus


    This is pretty damming of the Gardaí (impressive number of tests in 2010). Higher arrest rate so not like drivers and not consuming alcohol anymore and tests are therefore not as effective.

    Year

    Licenses

    Tests

    TestRate

    Arrests

    ArrestRate

    2010

    2,655,048

    566,760

    21.3%

    10,308

    1.8%

    2025

    3,538,732

    189,736

    5.4%

    4,867

    2.6%

    https://www.rte.ie/news/2026/0513/1573093-breath-tests-figures/

    One startling statement though "The group also claims that 37% of drink driving court cases do not result in convictions."

    Why?



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    #2946
    zell12
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 35,522 ✭✭✭✭zell12


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124464859#Comment_124464859

    Dunno why, but the nation's gossip show, Liveline, discusses 25% of drivers think drink-driving is a-ok



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    #2947
    zell12
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 35,522 ✭✭✭✭zell12


    Not a mention that it was a cyclist killed in the headline

    image.png


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    #2948
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators, Paid Member Posts: 56,464 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124464859#Comment_124464859

    or were the stats juked back then?



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    #2949
    standardg60
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,917 ✭✭✭standardg60


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124464970#Comment_124464970

    Was just about to say that was around the time of the fake breath test scandal, they're hardly still taking those figures literally.



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    #2950
    Dr_Colossus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,463 ✭✭✭Dr_Colossus


    And probably akin to drink driving if not worse is mobile phone use and the devastating impact it can have:

    https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2026/0512/1572976-sean-connaughton-court/

    Wouldn't have expected a former firefighter of 25 years to have such a litany of previous convictions and to have some realisation of the impact dangerous driving can have on people's lives.



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    #2951
    TerrieBootson
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 309 ✭✭TerrieBootson


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124465175#Comment_124465175

    Not excusing him, but she was lying in the road just off a roundabout with her head on the centre line. She made a big contribution to the incident



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    #2952
    Paddigol
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,452 ✭✭✭Paddigol


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124465265#Comment_124465265

    I'd imagine that, as opposed to an online discussion forum, the court had full access to all of the evidence and provided a fully considered sentence. Evidence must have been pretty damning if the guy pleaded guilty rather than take his chances with the Irish Courts' lax punishment of driving related offences. I understand where you're coming from, but at the end of the day driving is a privilege not a right and we can't keep entertaining a status quo where drivers/ cars are treated akin to trains where they're on a one-way track and there's nothing they can do but plough through whatever is in front of them.

    Applying that Loophole Lawyer's blunt logic (I presume what's good for the goose is good for the gander), if this (and numerous other recent cases) demonstrates anything it's that drivers can't drive their cars properly so ;

    1. we need more roads police;
    2. speed limits need to be dramatically reduced;
    3. zero tolerance approach to alcohol and drugs;
    4. CPD style refresher tests every 5 years;
    5. we need harsher penalties;
    6. we need an expedited prosecution system;
    7. licences automatically suspended if the subject of a prosecution for careless or dangerous driving; and
    8. licences lost forever if convicted of careless or dangerous driving or driving with no insurance.

    If you're a competent driver, none of the above should be a problem. Yet imagine the outcry.



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    #2953
    p15574
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 865 ✭✭✭p15574


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124464859#Comment_124464859

    35 years driving and I've never been breathalysed - not a single time.



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    #2954
    cletus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,856 ✭✭✭cletus


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124466755#Comment_124466755

    I've been bagged twice ever. Both times at the junction outside my estate, both times within 10 minutes of each other.

    Was driving my boys to training, and was breathalised leaving the estate. Dropped them , drove home, was stopped on the opposite side of the junction. I politely explained to the garda that I had just been tested by his colleague, showed him the plastic straw, and he said "Are you refusing to submit a test" or similar phraseology.

    I assume that they had a number of tests to hit, and didn't care.



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    #2955
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators, Paid Member Posts: 56,464 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    I wonder if it is 'a thing' that some drivers carry around a used straw with them to try that line?



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    #2956
    Macy0161
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,111 ✭✭✭✭Macy0161


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124466755#Comment_124466755

    Once in the 27 years I've been home - one of those big christmas check points. They had set up in Kilmac - but you could see the blue lights coming up the hill from Herbert Road, so you could easily pull off the junction before if you were concerned.



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    #2957
    Wildly Boaring
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,821 ✭✭✭Wildly Boaring


    Funny enough I've been breathalised a number of times over my 26? years driving.
    I have also driven a lot - averaged 50,000 miles for several years in a row.
    None of the checkpoints were obvious

    Once headed into Sligo on the N4 - middle of the day?
    Once on the Quays outside Guinness - early morning (6:30 or so) around Christmas
    Once in Clane or Sallins - Saturday night of my mam's 60th
    Once somewhere near Athboy - bringing friends home from pub
    Once in my home parish after pub closing.
    Twice in UK in 5 years - Both near Oxford after pub closing time.



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    #2958
    CramCycle
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 27,129 Mod ✭✭✭✭CramCycle


    Only breathalysed once, and I knew it was coming. I came through Wexford town and pulled over to take my jumper off after midnight. The Garda car slowed as it passed, while I tried to remove the jumper which sort of got stuck. Low and behold, they were a mile out the road. Passed no issues, you could tell one of them thought they had an easy collar. I have been stepped loads at checkpoints but they never bothered other times, they were breathalysing people though.



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    #2959
    Tenzor07
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,938 ✭✭✭Tenzor07


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124465265#Comment_124465265

    An extremely bad and unfortunate set of circumstances certainly led to the coming together of these two individuals that night, leading to the the death of one of them…



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    #2960
    khamilton
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 294 ✭✭khamilton


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124466956#Comment_124466956

    It actually came out that Gardai were doing mandatory roadside testing because they had a quota imposed from upon high, so they just went out at high-traffic (but probably low-detection rate) times to get the # of detections they needed done as quickly as possible.

    The Wire never stops being relevant! :)



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    #2961
    Dr_Colossus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,463 ✭✭✭Dr_Colossus


    Gardai need to get a number of these also, have seen 3 or 4 of the large gas cannisters discarded at the side of the road this week:

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3r24qpezvzo


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    #2962
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators, Paid Member Posts: 56,464 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    the effects of NOX are very temporary - it lasts less than 30s - so i assume that would complicate proving it has resulted in impairment?

    i'd also be curious if it lingers in the system for long, but as long term use does neurological damage, i suspect that could be the case.



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    #2963
    CramCycle
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 27,129 Mod ✭✭✭✭CramCycle


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124470499#Comment_124470499

    I had it once in St. James for stitches to my chin. It lasted a decent amount of time, walked all the way from there to Trinity in fairly good form.



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    #2964
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators, Paid Member Posts: 56,464 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    ah; i tried it in less medical circumstances and the effect seemed very temporary.



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    #2965
    Large bottle small glass
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,768 ✭✭✭Large bottle small glass


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124466755#Comment_124466755

    I went from 1992-2022 and close to 1.5 M km without being tested..

    Tested 5 times between late 2022 and end of 2025. All within 20km of the house



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    #2966
    De Bhál
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,391 ✭✭✭De Bhál


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124471028#Comment_124471028

    You must have the same car as the local alcho



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    #2967
    CramCycle
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 27,129 Mod ✭✭✭✭CramCycle


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124473569#Comment_124473569

    I have the same bike as the local alco, only one of its kind in the parish.



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    #2968
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators, Paid Member Posts: 56,464 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2026/05/20/man-24-who-filmed-himself-drinking-at-wheel-is-jailed-over-195kmh-crash-that-maimed-brother/

    This case was talked about previously in the thread. Driving over three times the speed limit, drinking, killed his brother. Two years in jail.

    Finalising the case, the judge said the nature of the offence attracted a nine-year sentence, but noting genuine remorse, previous good character and mitigation, he reduced it to five years.



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    #2969
    loyatemu
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 16,592 ✭✭✭✭loyatemu


    how can the mitigation reduce the sentence from 9 to 5 years, and then additionally get 3 of those years suspended? And only a 4 year ban. This is as bad a case of reckless driving as you'll see and he'll be out and possibly back on the road within 2 years.

    Put your money where yer mouth is... Subscribe and Save Boards!

    https://subscriptions.boards.ie/



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    #2970
    Thelonious Monk
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,514 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124485574#Comment_124485574

    he didn't kill him, brother lost his leg



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    #2971
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators, Paid Member Posts: 56,464 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    Sorry yeah, I was thinking of a different case when I mentioned that.



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