Also, get the f*ck out of the right hand lane on a motorway

Educate drivers, is the better plan. Speed is a killer agreed, but slow speed is just as dangerous. I’ve never seen so many old clueless drivers on the road.

Someone needs to seriously review the speed limits in this country. The nass road to newlands cross is 50-60kph. Thats a 3 lane dual carriageway with industrial units on each side and no residential access. And its a common place for spotting coppers behing the bus stop at the coca cola factory!

Tiny bohreens with a grass track down the middle, residential access on both sides and barely enough room for 2 cars are 80kph near blessington. I wouldn’t do 80 on these roads if you paid me!!

Garda members who are not responding to emergency calls will be told to reduce their speed, and drive at speeds appropriate to the prevailing conditions.

Surely that should be standard practice and not just a special order for the duration of the operation.

Look at the majority of crashes. 3am, 21 year old with the bird, single car collision on an unlit road in midlands or west of Ireland.

30kph limits on the dublin quays or other stupid initiatives will not solve the problems.

Look at the source, then prepare a solution to the actual problem.

How is it when we see these type of articles there is never any mention of the state of the country’s roads?

Well set up your speed traps and checkpoints in areas and roads known for accidents and not on main streets of towns and villages. And what about the last few weeks where you have 16 year olds in tractors thinking they own the road (constantly on their phones) blowing ESB and telephone poles all over the place.

Double penalties for all residents of County Donegal caught speeding or any other road traffic offence would be a good start.

It might improve their awful, aggressive driving and, of course, would give them something else to whinge about.

The common post here is one of ‘I’m a great driver and everybody else on the road needs to come up to my standard.’ Part of being a good driver is to be tolerant of other drivers. Stop being competitive on the road.
Stop believing you are so good.
If you did a poll of drivers and asked the question ‘Are you a better than average driver’, you would probably have 70% say yes which clearly can’t be right.
Take a leaf out of the sailing or flying world where people learn the rules and obey them.
The trouble with car driving is there is too much ego when people get behind the wheel. It’s just a bloody car to get from A to B. Drive within the rules, respect other road users and leave the ego at home.

Country roads are lethal, speed signs @80KPH where 60 is too fast, no guards patrolling because of cutbacks, L drivers in souped up civics on phone wit fag in gob trying to impress bimbo in front seats with feet up on dashboard.. Every other lorry driver and tractor driver on mobiles ( more drivers on phones than not) and absolute shite roads, add this to our ignorance and it’s a lethal cocktail, I am surprised road deaths are so low to be honest.

The key to the news sound bite was that speed was the cause is many incidents – How many is always unsure and often unavailable. Mostly it’s driver error, not related to speed – ill judgement and lack of control. I know so many cases a ‘solo’ car hitting a wall on a country road at speed has a lot to do with our tragic suicide rates. And as some one who lost a father in road accident, and counseled many depressed individuals (at that level) This particular type of incident is never recorded as such, but remains to ‘colour’ the overall statistics. The difficulty is the proportion of ‘monatory’ Garda response the actual mathematics of risk assessment, it is totally out of proportion. And as such keeps prompting the moral question of motive and agenda from the average road user, who finds it increasingly difficult to drive because of the defensive tactics required to avoid entrapment – for that’s what it is. The original laws for speeding was recording speed over a measured tenth of a mile – thereby taking in the variables. But now it’s done on an instant click. Would be interested to see how the legislation is really structured and whether discrimination is at play in view of earlier precidents?

“Operation Slow Down will see checkpoints on national primary and secondary roads carried out by local Gardaí and the Garda Traffic Corps” I’m sorry but that doesn’t cover the roads that allot of accidents happen on, the local roads. And I’ll put my last punt on a bet that they’ll be on the motorways (statistically the safest type of road) to make a few quid on people doing 10k over the speed limit. I’m not condoning speeding in anyway just that this Operation has a major flaw in my mind.

Gardai need to lead by example. The other day for example I was faced by an impatient garda overtaking a line of traffic at a high rate of knots. No headlights or blue lights even.

They should start teaching road safety in secondary schools.. And that way when they go on to get their licence it will be bet into all their heads.. If people cant be bothered to learn it themselves then they should be forced to learn it in school.. Theres a good chance they’ll enjoy that class because it wont be boring and 90 percent of the class will wanba learn to drive one day..Its somethin they should look into

Travelled up the M8 today to Dublin superfast Garda car lit up like a Christmas tree passed me on Portlaoise bypass (me doing 120km) he travelling as though I was going backwards. Passed him parked up in the Garda speed trap at Kildare Chilling ( me still doing 120km) on way back out of city motorbike Garda on side of Road outside Köping garage with speed gun (me crawling in heavy traffic) was passed again by traffic corps after Poitin Still, GATSO van on the way into Johnstown Co Kilkenny. Hopefully I didn’t miss any of today’s traps or I might be getting an unwelcome letter from the Gardai.

Operation slow down nation

Only in Ireland would you conduct such an operation and actually tell people about it…. FFS

Speed kills, Excessive speeds kill, not 5-10km over the speed limit in area’s where silly speed limits apply. Take the stilorgan rd for example, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel, complete nonsense and does nothing for road safety but eliminate respect for the Garda. The Red cow is another one, The N11 near kilmacanogue the speed drops from 80 to 60 then back to 80 again within a 2km stretch no prises for guessing where the Garda sit with their ray guns, madness. It’s just to generate revenue. Another thing if you are caught just over the speed limit a fine of aprox €90 (this figure is just a guess) is more than enough punishment, having to pay for it through penalty points for a further 3 years is ridicules as you insurance increases. The Garda need to do some smart thinking and leave the normal passive citisians alone. Keeping with a natural flow of traffic without speeding is not a crime. ( end rant)

and just point out…I’m not a garda, but take a moment to think of the Gardai and paramedics who attend these horrendous car crashes, witnessing lives that our lost or severly critically injured, it’s not easy, mostly these are ordinary men and women working day in and out like the rest of us all, their only trying to promote safe driving…thats all….next time you think of pulling stunts on the road…think of the Garda who will be makin the house visit with bad news to your relatives, their all human at the end of the day!!

Everyone should repeat their driving and theory test every 5 years to keep them up to date to all new rules and stop from developing bad habits behind the wheel. Depending on their results of the test their individual premiums would rise or fall.(what you’d spend on the test you’d save on the insurance)
Anyone taken off the road for dangerous driving/causing death should go back to provisional licence from the beginning if they are allowed back.

@ Miles…regarding comment ‘speed does not kill, the suddenness of the stop is what kills’ are you stupid!! in my thoughts if you weren’t speeding to begin with and driving within the accepted speed limits (now I’m not talking driving like a snail either) but you would then have the awareness to stop in an emergency or where needed in a safer and timely manner, as opposed to speeding…which as a result may cause you to come to an abrupt stop causing injury or death due to a reduced lack of awareness of certain situations on the road such as having to stop in an emergency… primary cause of death would be as a result of speeding with secondary cause being the damage occured as a result of the force in which one stopped. if you were driving within the speeding limits chances are you would stop more in advance, also someone who is knocked over at 30k has more of a chance of surviving than when hit at 40k and higher, so speed does kill!!

The government spends so much on road safety campaigns yet it is higher than last year. Maybe it would be better to spend this money on suicide prevention campaigns which statistically involve a far greater number of deaths every year.

Had anyone considered road stats went down not because of campaigns but because the economy is flat lining and there’s probably something in the region of 400,000 less journeys a day are being made? Now think of the risk stats and the money now being spent. As I said earlier I lost my father to the roads, yet it doesn’t mean I cannot see a lost cause trying to fight a ‘minute’ statistic that in all probability will never go away.

Driving too fast and driving too slow are as dangerous as each other. As a foreign national I took my test in another country and have my qualifications for driving everything apart from a motorbike . What I have noticed since I have been living here is the appalling standard of driving which is way more dangerous than speeding ever will be. Most drivers seem to think that indicators are an optional extra which they didn’t get with their car. Anticipation is another skill that seems to be lacking here or maybe it’s because I drive large vehicles that I am more used to anticipating what’s happening up ahead. Also lane selection especially on motorways is atrocious. The middle and outside lanes are for overtaking not for toddling along in! Maybe the new licence criteria might solve some of this. I hope so

I live in a built up area with children out playing as is the norm on the bright evenings. Only this evening a Garda car sped through the estate flying over speed ramps. They want to practice what they preach.

Operation make more Money,less hiding behind bus shelters,in a 50 zone,catching the proverbial fish in a barrel,bumping up the catch,and not being proactive.

All I see is the guards getting a bundle of overtime for the summer holidays and paying for it by trapping the average motorist. They justify this by claiming it’s a safety thing, want to stop road deaths sit down the road from the local night club and nab the boy racers coming out showing off.

The piggy bank must be empty

Try catching house thieves- useless, we are better off having our own protection squads

@ miles, I did not say others were stupid I said ARE You Stupid, any way I take it you dont drive, you obviously transport yourself around on your high horse!! you obviously cant take a joke either, my whole point was just to say slow down on the roads and take care, I think we can all agree that it is a shame when lives are lost on the road regardless of how it happened, I am aware of the crappy roads and poor situations out there etc, it’s a plain simple message of be safe on the roads I was trying to point out, good day to you. (and just to mention your comment had come thru to my private email, and I could not find it on the thread first, but found it later, apologies for that)

cop on miles and get over it!

miles I shall leave this conversation as it is clear you don’t have a clue, hopefully common sense will catch up with you one day, and maybe one day you will open your eyes to the real world, sadly it appears that you will not and you shall forever continue with your own shallow beliefs, goodbye!

Miles I do not know what you work as, but I work in frontline services and have resusitated more children than I would care to imagine, and those children do not need their lives lost as a result of people speeding on our roads, and if you or others like to think that I am silly well then so be it, I personally don’t care, as you do not know me, their may come a day when you or your family rely on the emergency and intensive care services in which I work in and am damn good at that job, you would be lucky to have me saving your life, so unless you have been on the frontline of death secondary to speeding on the roads I think you can zip it with regards to your boring scientific facts and revelations that you found off google, the message is slow down on the road and be safe.

yes thank you for the private mail @ myles….regards to your comment on the speed of aircraft and space crafts….if you read the heading right the headline is trying to slow down DRIVERS who SPEED, the high volume of traffic on our roads mixed together with high speed will result In more tragic adverse events in the event of an accident, and you can take that from a very highly educated person, who deals with road traffic accidents more to frequently than I would like too…..a lot of them would have done less damage if the driver had slowed down!! again…DRIVER, not pilot or astronaut. your just trying to be smart with your comments….it won’t work on me!

In a word that was what I was including in the stats issue. The money spent on road safety, is vastly disproportionate – it can become a sacred cow for those “in the safety business” whose horizons are somewhat narrow – and I know it’s highly emotive but I have been their myself and have felt the fall out. . . but equally there are far bigger issues requiring our attention. Especially as COD for some is actually using a vehicle as a means.

Better education is needed. Speed, Correct lane for roundabouts, weather conditions, loss of control, lane changes. As a L driver you don’t get a chance on the motorways and then it’s open season once you’ve passed. Crazy. nWho can tell me what the rule is on the likes of the M50 when the car in lane 1 wants to come in to lane 2 at the same time the car in lane 3 wants to come in to lane 2?n

Think it will I notice this to,o having driven all over europe for decades – the indicator is an optional extra it appears . . .

Speeding is one issue, bad driving is a bigger issue. Number of drivers driving in wrong lanes for their speed in Motorways and dual carriage ways is incredible. This causes other drivers to have to change lanes constantly to avoid them,increasing risks of accidents. Better education is what is needed, all second level students should get a driving/rules of the road course including driving test, transition year an ideal starting point.

People are complaining about speed limits on roads. It’s a limit not a target to reach. You drive at the speed you are comfortable to drive at and be able to bring the vehicle to a complete stop safely.