Printable View
3 people in dublin & 2 in cork lost their lives in horrible incidents over night.
realistically what can we do to make people be more aware and drive with more care.?
i know these incidents themselves might not have been the peolpes fault(who perished) but in general we are loosing too many people on our roads
I lost a friend of mine in a road accident last year and it was the same as most the car was driving too fast.
Only answer SLOW DOWN!
Obviously the state of the roads is also an issue. Garda resources concentrating on catching speeders rather than slowing down traffic, speed traps on the wrong roads (motorways and dual carriageways) etc.
Ultimately I think the biggest thing the country could do is get the provisional drivers off the road, bizarre and non-sensical that you can drive on your own before even taking a test, never mind failing one. If all drivers were actually fully qualified it would surely be a start? Unfortunately no ones got the balls to do it.
totall agree - the fact that you can get "legally" drive a car without a practical test is a joke. Makes the driving test system come across as a money spinner. 14 month wait for driving tests certainly doesnt help the situation either.Quote:
Originally Posted by Macy
I heard the one about 2 dying on the NCR in dublin last night at 3am or something. Said they crashed into a parked truck. I live just up the road so curious to know what part of the NCR as some parts can be quiet dark. seen the section closed off this morning & is the widest & brightest (no trees) section of the road so only reason can be speed (possibly booted through junction to beat lght). This may offend some people & i don't know full facts but speed limt is 30mph (whatever that is on kph) so can't blame anyone else & driver can only be one to blame.
I don't know if family can claim compensation but there may come a point when such payments should be blocked?
Every new minister for transport & justice in last 10 years has told us all how terrible it is that can drive with proivisional licence as if we didn't know. None of them have done 1 thing about solving. Seems like they have "negotiated" with testers union for years with no result.
Solution:
1. Create National Register of Driving instructor which trains & certifys Driving instructor. No instructor licence = not allowed train others.
2. Hire New Driving instructors for test centres ASAP. No excuses, no negotiating! If someone has instructors licence they can apply for job.
3. Once sufficient instructors to keep up with backlog send out dealine that no provisional drivers may drive unless under instruction!
It really is that simple. It will be self financing so no costs issues. Screw the special interest groups.
junction of prussia st & ncr.
I don't think speed is as big a problem as people make out. The biggest problem is that a large number of people on the roads in this country cannot actually drive properly. The driving test is a joke- with a bit of luck any idiot can pass it, you don't need to be a good driver anyway. How to stop the carnage:
1. Provisional drivers off the road.
2. Improve the roads.
3. Introduce proper speed limits (i.e. why can you do 50kms on a dual carriageway and 80 on a country lane :rolleyes: )
4. Introduce a proper driving test, that makes sure people know how to drive PROPERLY.
5. Speed traps where they're needed, not where its easy to catch people.
6. Regulate driving instructors, so they have to have some kind of qualification (not just a full licence :rolleyes: )
Have a dedicated traffic core with zero tolerance for bad and dangerous driving and not pulling people up on relatively safe roads like motor ways and dual carraigeways.
The USA being a good example of zero tolerance.
I wouldn't necessarily blame the bad roads. You gotta drive to the conditions and unfortunately people still speed without respecting the ****ty road / weather / other drivers etc.
Thats the key to it. And people aren't trained to do that. 3 or 4 lessons and a spin around a housing estate on a sunny day is enough to get you a licence in this country- its madnessQuote:
Originally Posted by Countyman
Precisely. Speed doesn't kill people, bad driving does. I see at least two or three people every day that should not be allowed drive a car. It's like giving them a loaded gun and telling them to be careful with that small bit of metal hanging down.Quote:
Originally Posted by Éanna
adam
While I agree that bad drivers is a huge contributing factor to road deaths,its a bit naive to state that speed dose'nt kill.
No it's not. You can tell me that "speeding without due consideration kills" and I won't argue with you, but "speed kills" doesn't work with me. It's a non-sequitur invented by media consultants to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Or, to put it another way, it's an unqualified meaningless statement.Quote:
Originally Posted by joey B
If we're going to accept stupid statements as truth, with no critical examinations, I've got one for you: Drivers that don't keep up with traffic - which is in the rules of the road - cause accidents to occur on a regular basis, as people behind them get frustrated and take chances. Here's my slogan:
Slow Kills
Will you put that on the telly in horrific ads that bad drivers ignore, and everyone else finds upsetting? Of course you won't. Because it's stupid.
adam
You can't any more though, can you? First provisional drivers can't drive on their own, and can't go up to second provisional (who can drive on their own) without taking a test (this is relatively recent, granted). If you go beyond second provisional, you're back to requiring a full-licence holder in the car with you.Quote:
Originally Posted by Macy
Enforcing that is another issue though. Who's ever been stopped and asked for their licence before?
You don't need to apply for the test until you are applying for your third provisional licenceQuote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
NRA reportQuote:
The primary contributory factor to fatal and injury accidents involving young drivers was speed. Fifty-two per cent of fatal accidents involving young drivers specified speed as a contributory factor, compared with 27 per cent for accidents involving older drivers.
PSNI Safety Camera SchemeQuote:
Speed doesn't cause accidents - it’s other things?
Speed is a significant contributory factor to injury collisions in Northern Ireland – at least 25% of all fatal collisions in Northern Ireland are caused by speed. Research (The effects of drivers' speed on the frequency of road accidents, TRL 421) has shown that for every 1mph reduction in average speed there is a 5% reduction in the number of collisions.
National Safety Council websiteQuote:
Speed is the single largest factor contributing to road deaths in Ireland.
Over 40% of fatal accidents are caused by excessive or inappropriate speed.
Research and international experience show that the frequency and severity of road crashes tend to decrease with reductions in average speed. A 1km/h decrease in average speed results typically in a 3% decrease in road crash frequency. (Source: European Transport Safety Council)
Arguing that excessive speed isn't as big a problem as is made out is as disingenuous as the "guns don't kill people -people kill people" argument put forward by the NRA.
the greater the speed -the shorter the reaction time -the greater the impact force and the higher the likelyhood of fatal injury. That's not opinion or spin -it's mathematics.
If you slow down you are less likely to be involved in an automobile accident -and even if you are then involved in one -it'll most likely have been the other vehicles fault -and guess what -they'll most probably have been driving at excessive speed.
personnally I wouldn't spend another penny on our roads. I'd put the money to better use getting motorists and their motors off the roads in the first place. that means investing in and subsidising a comprehensive and (crucially) cheap public transport sysyem.
Do I think this government will do anything towards that end. will they fcuk.
Full licenced drivers can be poor drivers too. Experts often refer to a driving career and I think that if you adopt a positive attitute and keep perfecting your skills on the road you will be successful. People can blame bad roads, speed, drink, being tired all the want. We as a nation still lack a certain attitude when it comes to driving.
I really feel for those two brothers family. I've experiance of a similar thing and the deaths of the two brothers have struck a particular nerve in our family.
That's actually a good point.Quote:
Originally Posted by dahamsta
I find drivers who go excessively slow cause as much problems as drivers who go excessively fast.
There's nothing more infuriating on the road as people who crawl along like they have all the time in the world and don't give a sh!t if the rest of us are making time or not. Fcuking ignorance is all it is.
"Speed" is not the sore cause of accident but Inappropriate Speed almost certainly is. Some people will say 100kph is fast but it isn't on a motorway whereas would be on city street.
The NRA are spoofers & clueless. No barriers on central medians, poles & other targets at the sides of the round with no barriers in front of them, generall poor design & inconsistencies of even new roads.
I'm afriad the gardai are not much better. They are poor equiped, apparently very few trained in how to acces accidents, rarely pull people over for dangerous driving but quick to hide behind hedge & get you on safest raod in the country.
I've heard that state troopers in the US rarely pull people over for breaking speed limit as they look more for bad driving, changing lanes etc...
Road & driving policy is 100% the fault of politicans even accepting people must take personal; responsibility!
To just say something like 'get provisional drivers' off the road is dumb.. How are they going to learn to drive in the first place if there is no provisional licence system.. They do need a full licenced driver in the car beside them also.
The problem is people are not being turned from provisional licence to full licence fast enough as the queue's are unreal!
And as for insurance prices that is another day's rant...