Foreign drivers on Irish roads

i'm not just on about eastern europeans etc but northern irish drivers. They are a law unto themselves, peed limits mean nothing to them or one way streets or illagal parking, why.....no comeback.

if i speed in northern ireland i can be arrested and my car taken away, what can they do down here, well they say they can do nothing, but how can that be ??

you break the law and there has to be some sort of sanctions, i know penalty points dont come into force, but how about impounding cars etc.

another thing, foreign workers are bringing in a number of left hand drive vechile and dont re register them so they still keep getting away with it, i was under the impression that if you are a residant in this state and you bring in a car from another nation you must re register it, i see cars where i live that have been here over a year and still have foreign plates on them,


end of friday evening rant.

I spoke to a customer I deal with from Dublin who was telling me he was over in England a few weeks ago and he was speeding to Stranraer to catch the ferry (in his Ferrari). When I asked him wasn't he bothered he'd be caught, his reply was "nah, I couldn't give a sh!te coz there's nothing they can do about a car with Irish plates".

The same would apply in Northern Ireland then for Republic drivers surely.....or is he talking through his arse?

no up north they cn take your car and arrest you, but sure you know the lovley garda down here and how hard they work so they are no doubt trying to work out such a dificult area:rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by The Pie Man

i see cars where i live that have been here over a year and still have foreign plates on them,

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Oh come on, are you taking down numberplates or something?

The main problem on the roads isn't foreigh cars. It's a combination of boy racers driving too fast (and yes, I've already said elsewhere I've 6 points for speeding) and drunk driving (still).

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Originally Posted by Dr.Nightdub

Oh come on, are you taking down numberplates or something?

The main problem on the roads isn't foreigh cars. It's a combination of boy racers driving too fast (and yes, I've already said elsewhere I've 6 points for speeding) and drunk driving (still).

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Yeah, thank God I can't drive anymore. The number of young ********s (who rally race tiny little jalopies with fancy markings on them) who use Irish roads as public racetracks really annoys me. I couldn't afford to drive until I was 24 and by them I'd a tiny bit of maturity to recognise the responsibility having control of a vehicle.

Sadly too, many of my age group still think it's ok to drive after a couple of pints or the morning after a p!ss up when their blood alcohol levels still effect their driving.

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Originally Posted by Dr.Nightdub

Oh come on, are you taking down numberplates or something?

The main problem on the roads isn't foreigh cars. It's a combination of boy racers driving too fast (and yes, I've already said elsewhere I've 6 points for speeding) and drunk driving (still).

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no its a guy who lives in my estate and has done for over a year. and i do agree with the other points which you have made.

There is an EU loophole that if you still a resident in the foreign country and continue to get car insured in that country don't have to re register your car at all. Perfectly legal from what i was told.

Anyway plenty of sh!te irish drivers without blaming all foreigners. Irish drivers are worst i've seen in the developed world. Worst roads, worst training, worst policing, worst governing etc...

worse than driving in Rome ????

not all drivers i am on about are from EU member states, u must re register a car if you live in this state, thats simple law, ask any Garda.

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Originally Posted by The Pie Man

not all drivers i am on about are from EU member states, u must re register a car if you live in this state, thats simple law, ask any Garda.

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Not true. You are taking about rule must re-register in 6 months. If you are tax resident in other EU state (the one i was told about was Italy) you are not required to re regsiter or even insure your car here. I was told this by an italian driver driving registered car who pays PAYE tax here but pays other taxes in Italy - he was stopped by guard & challenged him to arrest or release him...

Watching the new the other day about the amount of road deaths in January and of the 39 deaths I think we counted at least 9 who were Eastern European. Hardly a coincidence now that nearly 25% of the people killed on the roads were foreign nationals. I thought that was what this thread was going to be about anyway, we've had British cars here for decades. This is a new phenomenom and even government figures have pointed out its dangers.

Back on topic...

I had to laugh when read the safety council blaming road deaths on foreigners as if we haven't had carnage on the roads for years already. I'm not doubting the figures but seems like easy excuse for blantant failure of the state to mange our driving system. Simple fact is that if the state was doing its job it wouldn't be allowing un-registered, uninsured foreigners on the roads.

The guards will make any excuse not to police the roads. They complain that cannot breatalyse people without cause. Hows about a checkpoint 100 yards from those large pub carparks you see? All teetotallers i suspect not? If you see someone driving out of a pub car park there is definitely a reasonable suspicion that they have been driving. Simple.

If the guards had a camera that they could place on the side of the road that automatically detected alcohol just like speeding they'd be catching loads of people.

good points their soko, but i would also look at the number of accidents and deaths in the border regions. i saw one of those deaths last saturday night ( foreign national ), that was the reason i posted this, 25% is a large amount and the facts to speak for themselves.

The main part of the problems are the fact that people are allowed to drive on a provision licence and there's no real push to get people to take proper driving lessons or even a test. I mean anybody can set up their own driving school without any certificates if they want. The same lackness in drivers with Provision licences also happens in Many Eastern Europian EU states, hence the contrabution to the carnage on Irish roads by drivers from Eastern europe.

The goverment should be looking more at providing off road training for 16 year olds, enforcing people to take proper driving lessons, sort out the speed limits on Irish roads by bringing them down, 80km an hour on small rural roads is madness, and enforcing bigger peneltys for drink drivers and consistent offenders for speeding.

Also proper checks on cars from other countrys being brought into the Ireland and checks on the driver driving them.

the system in the USA with drivers ed classes in school is a great idea, there are a number of factors for the deaths on our roads i feel, provisional drivers ( but many wait a year or more for a test ) but on the other side i know people driving 20 years on a provisional licence.

another of course is speed or more people not able to copw with speed. add to that drink driving and drug driving also.

the roads dont help either, the state of some of the regional roads in this country is a disgrace, all money pumped into motorways with tolls to produce money while the road of the system falls to bits.

one point mentioned rarely is the amount of people who were just given licences during the 80s when the government just wanted rid of the back log, these drivers have never sat a test but yet ave full licences.

There is absolute no excuse for not having more driving testers & officially registered instruictors. The government have been talking to tester union about changes for at least 10 years now & no change whatsoever. FFS the testers will pay for themselves so won't cost a cent not that it should be a factor anyway. Can anyone give me a reason why the government should not just test the union where to go & just hire extra asap. Give say 2 years to clear backlog & then tell insurance companies not to insure provisional people driviong instructed & tell gardai to impound the cars of those people if caught.

Driving is more a right than anything else that has an exam. If you fail then no driving as you are not qualified. Simple.

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Originally Posted by The Pie Man

the system in the USA with drivers ed classes in school is a great idea.

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Yeah, its a great idea in theory - but it doesn't seem to work either. I live in California, and theres as many wee d!ckheads speedin' around here as at home. Oh and the problem of drink driving is probably worse over here - purely because public transport is crap.

Oh, and the quality of the roads over here where I am - are worse than at home.

And before any other exiles in America contradict me, I speaking about SoCal in particular.

The bad driving, and road safety isn't just an Irish phenomenon lads.

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Originally Posted by dancinpants

Yeah, its a great idea in theory - but it doesn't seem to work either. I live in California, and theres as many wee d!ckheads speedin' around here as at home. Oh and the problem of drink driving is probably worse over here - purely because public transport is crap.

Oh, and the quality of the roads over here where I am - are worse than at home.

And before any other exiles in America contradict me, I speaking about SoCal in particular.

The bad driving, and road safety isn't just an Irish phenomenon lads.

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Drink driving probably worse in America? Its 1000 times worse. A Friday night and everyone has no problem going drinking at home, driving the car into the city and driving home with maybe a few pit stops on the way. Its so far gone that you'll never fix it in the US.

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Originally Posted by Soko

Watching the new the other day about the amount of road deaths in January and of the 39 deaths I think we counted at least 9 who were Eastern European. Hardly a coincidence now that nearly 25% of the people killed on the roads were foreign nationals. I thought that was what this thread was going to be about anyway, we've had British cars here for decades. This is a new phenomenom and even government figures have pointed out its dangers.

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I was a bit slow to join in on this one, for fear of xenophobic undertones but i did quietly notice that statistic myself and it is a point worth mentioning especially in light of the fact that our neighbours from NI and/or UK have been driving here for years - and though i'm not sure, I wouldn't think that the percentage of deaths of NI/UK citizens isn't as high as this...