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Every afternoon, TheJournal.ie brings you five things you really need to know at 5 o’clock.
1. #IVOR THE TERRIBLE: Today in the Seanad, Senator Ivor Callely began praising the recent High Court ruling against his Seanad suspension last summer, before being interrupted by the Cathaoirleach calling time. Speaking over the Cathaoirleach and the bell, Callely quoted from the Bible: “You shall know the truth – and the truth shall set you free”.
2. #BAILOUT: Fine Gael’s Enda Kenny and Michael Noonan are due to meet European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso in an hour’s time, to discuss the possibility of Ireland renegotiating its EU/IMF bailout agreement. Billionaire former investor George Soros says it’s “patently unfair” Irish people have to absorb the total losses caused by the banks, while the bondholders are “free”.
3. #KINDLE: Online store Amazon has announced that the number of ebooks sold for the Kindle device has now overtaken the site’s sale of paperbacks.
4. #GE11: Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin may intervene in the party’s election planning by moving candidates between constituencies. Martin is reportedly concerned about the number of candidates Fianna Fáil is running in some constituencies.
5. #FACELUCK: A Dublin man has tracked down his stolen car after someone who saw his appeal on Facebook spotted the vehicle. Warren Coakley, 34, saw his Audi A4 being stolen from outside his house in Tyrrelstown, Dublin 15 over a week ago. Five days later, with the help of Facebook, he found it in Mulhuddart.
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condolences to his family and friends look twice think bike. Not implying who was in the wrong but I know who came out the worse as is normally the case
@ter: I remember back in the day when i was on a motorbike in Dublin. Drivers just conciously donr see bikes. There needs to be a media flood of Think Bike. My own son is now on a Motorbike and Ive it drilled into him, mind drivers pulling out at junctions. They are looking for cars not bikes. Most just wont see you even though your lit up like an xmas tree.
@Carina Clarke: I went for a spin on the back of a friends motorbike, in the distance of only four miles two cars pulled out in front of us, only my friend is so experienced on his bike and anticipated what the drivers were about to do we would have been involved in a collision.
Another tragedy :(… Condolences to family and friends. All drivers please take care with weather warnings..
“His moped collided with a car.” …How do you know this? The wording of these collisions needs to change. It’s like the most vulnerable road user is always to blame.
Just yesterday I was, as someone who cycles a bicycle, chatting with with a guy who drives a moped about the possible ice on the roads and the perilous journey home. He said, “They just don’t see us.”
@Brendan D’Arcy: Drove a motorbike for years, best advice I got was “its not that you’ll hit someone, they’ll hit you. They don’t see you”. Best advice I ever got, even with lights on and hi viz, you could look a driver in the eyes and they would still pull out in front of you.
@Barra O Brien: best advice I got while doing the bike lessons, treat every journey as if you are invisible. Every single car at every junction can’t see you
Driving motorbikes for 40+ years. Best mindset is to assume all drivers are complete idiots and will do the most unexpected thing. Anticipation is the only thing that keeps you alive on a bike no matter how much hi-vis you wear. Condolences to this poor guys family.
@Declan White: I think cyclist and motor bikers over estimate the visibility drivers have sometimes, not that there aren’t many bad drivers, but every day I see bikes sitting in blind spots and popping out of no where.
Just because you see the car, doesn’t mean the driver can see you.
@ED: I ride a bike and drive a van. I’m as likely to be unseen in my large white high-roofed Transit as I am on a bike. People don’t look! Nobody pops out of nowhere, we’re there all along, just unseen.
I live near here and have seen plenty of accidents over the years but this is sadly the first fatal one I’ve heard of. Traffic filters into that junction from 6 different roads. One slip in concentration or an inexperienced driver is all it takes. RIP.
Motorbikes are VERY dangerous……. “According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), you are 37 times more likely to die in a motorcycle accident than a car accident – and nine times more likely to become injured while riding a motorcycle than while driving a car.”
@William Grogan: “become injured”??? That summs up the mentality. Injuries are caused.
Another one who thought is a hero on the street. Too much GTA played.
@Hubert Dworniok: the driver of car is now charged and appearing in court tomorrow morning. Moped driver was not in the wrong. If the motorcyclist in the was the wrong the car driver would not be charged with offences!
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