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THE GARDA TWITTER accounts have been at it again, informing and amusing the online masses.
This time, Garda Ned Davin, one of the forensic collision investigators from Dublin Castle, was at the helm. He spent an hour doing a Twitter Q&A and here are some of the things we learned…
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That account has become a must follow on Twitter. The Gardaí get a lot of stick, but they are doing this well.
I can’t imagine having to tell a family that their loved one is dead. It must be gut wrenching for the guard. Every parents worst nightmare!
Great community policing initiative! Fair play to the Gardai!
My god the amount of cars I saw this evening round 5pm going home in the torrential rain without their lights on absolutely ridiculous.
Should be a rule that when you have the wipers on you should also have your lights on.
Should be a rule to have your lights on at all times. Some countries do have it and have positive stats.
People think they’re “wasting the battery” or that they’re going to be changing light bulbs weekly. It’s lack of education more than anything.
Hey garda traffic Corp is it true whay the real guards say about you.
Speeding is bad driving? 52% of the Autobahn is unrestricted, yet German motorway accident rates compare favourably and are often better than many of their European counterparts.
100%. Bad driving and poor training/education is a big problem in Ireland. Too easy to blame speeding.
Whatever way you look at it its simple. The faster you go the less reaction time and the more serious the accident.
Driving at an inappropriate speed is bad driving.
Most of the accidents here don’t happen on motorways or even major roads, let alone autobahns, the happen on smaller roads, bendy roads, narrow roads etc, where speed is often plain stupid. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been passed by idiots on a series of bad bends on a road near where I live, a stretch of road known for the number of accidents that occur there. Visibility is crap, even in good weather, and they are relying on the fact that traffic is fairly sparse, and dumb luck, not to meet an oncoming vehicle.
Exactly inappropriate speed for road conditions as pointed out by twitter user Aidan1150. Strange how the “safety” vans park on the motorways, dual carriageways or three lane roads with ridiculously low speed limits.
Speed kills but inappropriate speed kills much more than excessive speed.
Appropriate speed is all well and good but we all know eejits who think they are great drivers and can drive faster than is sensible. They think their speed is appropriate.
@Soneps; I have never ever seen a safety van on a motorway before, and I travel on the motorway frequently.
I drive up and down the country on the motorway network all of the time and not once have I seen a speed van on a motorway.
There is the whole thing if you don’t spend and stay within the limit you have nothing to be worried about.
Ive seen them on motorways. I dont travel on motorways that frequently.
@Soneps; The Garda twitter account tweeted recently that speed vans do not operate on motorways so I think you’re absolutely incorrect.
There was one after exit 8 on the m7 gong toward Dublin on September 16th at 22.00. Speed Vans owned by the Go Safe consortium don’t operate on motorways. Garda vans can operate anywhere, and do operate on motorways.
That’s a very accurate recollection from five weeks ago…
Adrian. The Gardai should pay more attention to those who cause more crashes than those who go 5% to 10 % over the limit. Inappropriate speeders are the bigger culprits. Massive pile ups on motorways are mainly caused by those who drive too close to the vehicle in front, or tailgate.
The M7/N7 is one of the roads I travel most and the exit you refer to is not a motorway but a 3 lane national road.
Just saying like.
I don’t speak for the Garda but they can only enforce the laws given to them. I’d be surprised if you were stopped for exceeding the limit by 5% on a motorway but not so outside a school at closing time.
Rather than us all sit on the net saying what Garda should and shouldn’t do and we just stick to the pretty well sign posted limits. Not all limits are great some too high and others too low bit if you don’t break them you have nothing to worry about.
Surely that’s fair enough.
I you’re on an unrestricted part of the autobahn then you are not speeding. Speed limits are there to indicate a safe maximum speed in optimal conditions. If you exceed that speed, then you are driving poorly.
Remember cyclists. Cycle lanes are mandatory when they’re provided.
They do not operate on a motorway because it is unsafe to park a van on the hard shoulder with traffic passing at 120kph, that is not what the hard shoulder is for! Speed checks on motorways are conducted by patrol cars (radar speed gun) using the garda ramps or flyover!
@David, Adrian or Lara’s friends in Thurles would be able to verify otherwise. Yes safety vans do operate on motorways in this country. 100%.
Sorry, but i don’t know Adrian or Lara, nor do i live in Thurles! What i do know is, neither the Go Safe or Garda Gatso vans operate on a motorway! It is against Health and Safety Regulations!
Have a look at this for starters. A speed van carrying out checks on the side of a motorway
Have you ever seen the wreckage from crashes on the autobahn. Most cars are completely smashed to pieces. Don’t know how there is better statistics for that one considering the speed of cars when they impact on the autobahn.
Try anywhere in wicklow/wexford where the N11 merges with dual/m-way. There live there!
One always right outside Gorey town. Another on the Arklow bypass dual-c where it goes in a m-way and it just switches side on the road during rushhour.
Shooting fish in a barrel, then draggin’ there sorry carcass out an beaten them to death with paperwork!
Have you ever witnessed or ever watched footage of the few accidents that do happen on the autobahn? Absolute carnage. Speed may not be the absolute cause of an accident but the damage done is multiplied by speed. It’s simple physics.
Speed a s can only operate legally in designated areas. The Gardai have speed traps on motorways, not speed vans.
Check video above Fergal which shows speed van operating on an Irish motorway. I have stills of vans operating on other motorways also.
The fatality rate per billion km of travel on the Autobahn compares favourably to other European motorway networks, as does the overall accident rate. Amazing what enhanced driver education does.
We don’t have roads that compare to Germany. I wouldn’t go putting that speed on the roads here to be honest.
if you live in ireland you dont travel on motorways you travel on dual carriiage ways excepting the m50
What about the M1, M2, M3 etc that are scattered all around! All motorways….
And driver education needs to be vastly improved,although speed kills,it is poor driver choices that lead to a lot of smashes!
dual carrigeways,a motorway has 3 lanes or more and since the hard shoulder is for sulky racing it doesnt count
Now have a think….the R in R132 (road in N.Dublin) stands for Regional, N in N1 stands for National, so have a guess what the M in M1 (or as you say,M50) stands for?!
The simplest pointer is that all signs on motorways are blue, while dual carriageways are signed in green!
How to pronounce Vehicle properly?
Is there really a single correct way to pronounce ‘vehicle’, one that is the same in every region of Ireland? Lots of words are pronounced differently depending on where you come from, it’s variation, not right or wrong. I’d hate it if regional accents disappeared.
How do you think it should be pronounced?
It’s veh-hic-l. Anyways chill out people, its a fun article!
I think it should be pronounced ‘vehicle’……….Ask a stupid question!!
CAR.
Lol, “car” doesn’t exist in legal terms, it’s mechanically propelled vehicle.
I have seen the Garda speed van pulled over on the m1 just after the slip road for malahide and sth bound m50, where it catches cars doing 100km coming from Whitehall, bloody hate contradictors, just cos they didn’t see one, it’s not real….
Horselss carriage
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