They should also review the location of Go-Safe vans. Sitting in 50km limits on way out of towns is simply wrong or 200 meters of a roundabout where traffic will slow naturally before entering the towns. They’re supposed to be in locations where people have been killed. In my not-to-scientific survey of local people, nobody has lost their life on the Athy road out of Carlow nor within a mile of the speed trap van in Bunclody. As for the vans in Portarlington, they are simply a revenue generating exercise. I am not anti-speed trap, just wish they were in more appropriate locations.

In fairness if you are going to drive a car with an assistant commissioner in the back seat you can expect to be caught*

*gets coat

Won’t make any difference,not enough Gardaí to enforce the law.

Yes double the points, but have a short campaign where the RSA partner the phone companies and offer hands free kits/headsets at reduced rates and perhaps VAT free for a short time.

Proper order,no phone these days comes without some form of hands free apparatus! It annoys me to see so many people still using phones when driving!However when the Gardai aren’t doing much traffic policing what do you expect!

100% agree, use your earphone or a car kit or don’t use it at all. Very simple. Only morons drive with a phone to their ear.

As I posted in the other article.
Enforce the present laws and lead by example.
That includes Garda being banned from using them as well.

Just how many penalty points have been added by this government, seems to me they increase them every few months. They must come from the gene pool that gave the Christian Brothers a bad name! Every incentive is a negative one.

Completely agree

Don’t speed = don’t get caught.
Don’t use you phone whilst driving = don’t get caught. Remember the campaign when penalty points were introduced? “Get the point, not the points.”

Very good idea because it is getting worse. The lorry & transit vans are the most dangerous. I seen them smoke / drink / & om phone at the one time.

Garda = Superhuman. Driving, calling, talking, browsing… technologic :) It’s very hard to see Gardai without mobile phone while driving. They should use loudspeakers or ear bluetooth headphones. no exemptions!

There’s millions of comments with some good debates. Its a pity The Journal can’t pull all of those posts to this thread. It’s like starting all over again.

Gardai “superhuman”? Perhaps not, but bear in mind that they see the stuff and deal with the things that most of the posters here could not imagine even in their worst nightmare, so unless you have walked the proverbial mile, don’t bother abusing…….
and for the record, i agree in doubling the points………(also, Gardai are exempt from using their phone, but also discouraged from doing so)
*RANT OVER*

If caught with a phone whilst driving they should be put off the road for a while, teach them a lesson! A car almost drive into us last night because the moron was texting on his phone, got an awful fright! No need for it!

Reduce cost of handsfree devices or install them on EVERY new car from now on.

Question. Has anyone ever seen a speed check on a narrow windy road? I have seen plenty on wide open straight roads with minimal opportunity for accident yet none on back roads. It’s a numbers game. They filth and politicians are no more interested in genuinely reducing road death through constructive means. A few crap ads is a waste of money. Police the dangerous roads at night.

How are the Garda safer than anyone else using a mobile phone whilst driving ?

I spotted a traffic cop on his phone while driving along the quays yesterday. Great example to us all.

What about the Garda that I saw using his phone while driving today? Will he get points too? Doubt it……

@ Johnny… Well aren’t you the great man that you know how and what I need as an example for driving.
Being a person that depends on my car for work and putting up a huge amount of milage every year I see a huge amount of idiots on the road with phones up to their ears (including garda) so I suggest leading by example.
You seem to enjoy attacking people you know nothing about.

We’re expected not to smoke in working vehicles so hefty fines+points for using hand-held phones I say.