[pdxa4]

From today's Indo...Watch out for them lads...

New fleet of SUVs to help in speeding battle

CAMPBELL SPRAY
MOTORING EDITOR

THE Garda Traffic Corps is to buy about a dozen top-of-the-range Subaru Forester SUVs to lead its battle against speed and drunken driving. The estate cars will be unmarked so that they can be used undercover. The €40,000 all-wheel-drive Forester Turbo is one of the most adaptable cars with a top speed of about 210kmh/130mph and excellent handling in allconditions. The garda crews have been specially trained in Forester performance. According to Garda sources the Traffic Corps is "very excited" about the development.

 

[RiccsonTDI]

Fair enough... they have a job to do, and it badly needs to be done, but I can't agree with the sly factor.

There's a lot to be said for the deterrent factor associated with seeing plenty of Garda cars everywhere. On the other hand, those of us who know what to look for will spot them fairly easilly anyway.

 

[Mark N]

Last week I was about 1/4 km away from a guard on a pedal bike (he had a high vis jacket on which is a rarity these days) and he was stopped at a bus stop and just from experience of them hiding behind bus stops I slowed right down to 50 kms and cruised past him thinking he had a camera in his hand as it's a straight stretch and all it was was a bloody notepad which he was holding in a strange way.

It pays to be keeping an eye out for them though..

 

[pdxa4]

QUOTE (RiccsonTDI @ Jan 8 2006, 03:58 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Fair enough... they have a job to do, and it badly needs to be done, but I can't agree with the sly factor.

There's a lot to be said for the deterrent factor associated with seeing plenty of Garda cars everywhere. On the other hand, those of us who know what to look for will spot them fairly easilly anyway.

Oh I perfectly understand they have a job to do. I feel that they would be better off driving in marked cars instead. Most people would react immediately to a visual deterent...
I just find it hard to justify when the only speedchecks that I ever see are on perfectly straight pieces of road and in good conditions.

 

[Micky 32]

but sure we know why they are only in straight good roads etc etc

 

[JMS]

It seems to me that the penalty points/speeding situation has become a bit relaxed in the last year.
I think this is simply due to the fact that the Garda presence on our roads is not great (though I'm not complaining) but obviously the less they are around the less chance there is of getting cought and therefore people keep speeding.

Don't get me wrong, it dosen't really bother me what speed people do on the road as long as they can handle it but from the law's point of view they definately need more speed cameras/cops on the roads.

That's how it seems around my side of the country anyway, maybe it's different in other areas?

Thanks for the tip-off anyway Pdx

.

 

[Mark N]

Sure they committ suicide every Jan when they officially announce that their drink drive/freeflow campaign is over.

"It's ok people, we're feckin' off back to the stations, go out and speed, kill each other and get locked and drive home".

Why announce that you are relaxing the amount of presence on national radio and TV?? Madness.

 

[johnny99]

Crouching tiger, hidden garda in a forrester, jaysus.

Has anyone, (I'll bet not) ever got caught speeding on a dangerous twisty road.

John

 

[GSBellew]

QUOTE (johnny99 @ Jan 9 2006, 09:33 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Crouching tiger, hidden garda in a forrester, jaysus.

Has anyone, (I'll bet not) ever got caught speeding on a dangerous twisty road.

John

Is any road in Ireland not twisty?

The guards have loads of undercover yokes, I wouldn't get stressed just because some are in the paper, up this way they have an old boxy Isuzu trooper, looks like a farmers car, till the lights behind the grille go on, they park transits that look like builders vans along the M1 roadworks too

PS, Johnny99, is the 99 anything along the lines of Johnny23 in Con Air

 

[kvw]

the eastern europeans are doing most of the drink driving in this country now, we were the world leaders for a long time but these lads have taken it to a whole new level!!

 

[WRC]

QUOTE (kvw @ Jan 9 2006, 11:01 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>the eastern europeans are doing most of the drink driving in this country now, we were the world leaders for a long time but these lads have taken it to a whole new level!!

true, it was eastern european drivers that killed those 3 pedestrians at the weekend. Id say it would be impossible to get money of their insurance company

 

[Mark N]

I work with a girl who lives on the junction of that crash in Navan and she said how they crashed she has no idea.. straight stretch, no obvious dangers etc

 

[cian]

QUOTE (kvw @ Jan 9 2006, 11:01 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>the eastern europeans are doing most of the drink driving in this country now, we were the world leaders for a long time but these lads have taken it to a whole new level!!

yes and they're driving like lunatics. was coming down from waterford about 2 weekd before christmas and was over taken by one on a bend on double white lines. this isn't the only time but worst one i've seen.

 

[McandMar]

Drink driving checkpoints, pah dont make me laugh, i did over 300 miles over xmas this year and didnt see one guard at all, why dont they camp outside pub car parks, i dont belive for one minute all those drivers are drinking orange juice

There was interesting figures in the paper a few weeks back, something like 13% of fatalities on the road are caused by excessive speed, so speed kills eh, NOT! The most worrying was about 42% of fatalities was caused by people on the wrong side of the road, or pulling out infront of other cars. Now that i think about it how often have you had to slam on the brakes becuse some muppet was on the wrong side of the road infront of you trying to overtake, or just pulled out infront of you and then crawled along at 15mph... every bleedin day eh!

Old men with peaked caps, L drivers, and sub 1litre shitbox's, get them all off the road and everything will be fine....

/rant off

 

[WRC]

QUOTE (Mark N @ Jan 9 2006, 11:08 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I work with a girl who lives on the junction of that crash in Navan and she said how they crashed she has no idea.. straight stretch, no obvious dangers etc

from the indo QUOTE TWO people were killed when a car suddenly ploughed into them as they walked home along a rural road in the early hours of yesterday morning.

A third man, travelling as a passenger in the car also died after he was catapulted through the windscreen and into a ditch on impact.

The two pedestrians died instantly when the vehicle, an old Rover driven by an Eastern European, ran them over at approximately 4.30am yesterday.

 

[Geo]

QUOTE (McandMar @ Jan 9 2006, 12:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Drink driving checkpoints, pah dont make me laugh, i did over 300 miles over xmas this year and didnt see one guard at all, why dont they camp outside pub car parks, i dont belive for one minute all those drivers are drinking orange juice

That's exactly it, stick the cops outside the pub and the lads won't get into the cars in the first place......problem solved.

Of course then they won't have the figures to trot out saying how many people they arrested for drink driving.....

 

[thos]

The pigs regularly check the car park at my local, and watch the for same cars later on.

What happens now, is that people park 1/2 mile down the road, and walk the rest.

What happened to that politician who said that drink driving should be allowed in rural areas ??? What was he smoking ??

 

[Mark N]

Just sickening really...

Let the idiot in the car kill himself and his passengers do the same (not wearing a belt is probably the reason he was killed) but two bloody innocent people walking home from a simple night out is just not on.

I hope he gets the 10 years for dangerous driving causing death if he is charged and found guilty.

We all love our cars and probably push them from time to time but something is seriously wrong when people can't cop on to when it is inappropriate to do it.

I had a disagreement with a fella driving an SLK who was out of his bin at 3am on a roundabout on the M50 on Saturday night after he nearly took the side off me and I wish I'd called the guards on him after hearing this, I'm probably as bad for NOT ringing them.

 

[The Doc]

Theres a south eastern polition look for people who get caught speeding to be be jailed for 7 days

Madness!?

 

[soc]

Drink driving is a hugh problem in ireland - I know someone who regularly does it - as a result I'm not longer friends with him! And to top it off he has a mate who was caught drink driving a year ago but hasn't been to court yet cause he keeps getting it postponed & this still hasn't changed my ex-friends attitude!

The Garda should randomly select pubs and mount check points around a mile away from the pub car park in all directions - catching these assholes is the only way to stamp out the problem cause (going on my ex-friends attitude) they don't give a sh!te and know the chances of getting caught are very, very slim.