[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co4PQ7vtgco&&w=600]
Limerick TD Patrick O’Donovan (Fine Gael) asked the new chairperson of the Road Safety Authority Liz O’Donnell at a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications earlier for her opinion on the increase of penalty points from two to three and if she thought the penalty was disproportionate.
If that’s the deputy’s attitude, what’s the point?
Name the O’Donnell jammer anyone?
(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)
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More importantly, whose hand has he had grafted on?
3 points are needed to align with UK system, so that there can be all-island driving bans
“I would support the increase to 3, and 5” said Liz so she did, so she did…
FIVE like, as in Bosco’s favourite number …or Johnny 5’s alive …or the Famous Five …did I say 5? Did I really hear Liz saying she’d support 5 penalty points for speeding… Yikes !
Is that not three if undisputed, 5 if you appeal and it goes to court?
If it is, there doesn’t appear to be a mention of appeal in that clip :)
Irish drivers should be allowed to speed on English roads because seven thousand years of persecution.
Well thats 3 points once your not a garda, a sportsperson, a tv personality or a card carrying donator to FG or FF.
Or smokin’ hawt.
Thats me totally safe then. “oh officer i always wear my short kilt when i plan on doing one 120 through a built up area”.
**swallows sicky burp**
or a drugged-up banned driver.
A certain Baz Ashmawy got away with a drink driving incident where he crashed his porsche into a lamppost after tweeting pics of himself on the lash all day. I also posted this below.
51 ways to kill your Mammy.
Don’t forget district judge and editor of the Irish Independent.
In the spirit of compromise. I think the scheme should be amended to 1 point for garda, a sportsperson, a tv personality or a card carrying donator to FG or FF.
And three points for the general riff-raff, proletariat and other common scummers.
And 12 for anti-water charge protesters.
Overly complex, I can’t see it working. Also what do you do about people like Willie O’Dea – who threatens public order by withholding his PPS number from Irish Water?
Remember the drunk politician who drove the wrong way down a dual carriage way in the middle of the night, pissed as a fart…. allegedly… only a few years ago?
Good aul days wha!
A certain Baz Ashmawy got away with a drink driving incident where he crashed his porsche into a lamppost after tweeting pics of himself on the lash all day.
Actually that was Dr Jim McDaid and he was convicted. The former Minister for Transport (and figurehead of a number of anti drink driving campaigns) somehow wasn’t forced to resign.
His colleagues understood the pressure he was under.
i still would..
dat luks like a great job so it does de get chesse sandwiches durn de break
Am I missing something here – where’s the attitude??
Broadsheet obviously doesn’t like Liz – I’m sure she’ll get over it.
I’m with you Tom, I don’t see the attitude either (or any other reason for this post, if there is one).
She thinks that 3 points for speeding is fine, and that at 12 points you’re off the road. They take you off the road after giving you 4 chances. Where’s the problem?
I took it that it was more the attitude of the TD than that of Liz. If you don’t want to be put off the road, don’t speed. The fact that the fines are considered a money making scheme is a bit irrelevant. They can’t make money off you if you don’t speed.
But they CAN set the speed limits low enough that they know everyone will speed, and then send the Garda van round when they’ve nothing better to do and give points to every single person who passes them.
+1
I speed (a little bit) on the motorways all the time. I’m not proud of it, but it’s true.
I haven’t seen a Garda checkpoint since the recession began.
Sod that, the limits are pretty ridiculous in so many cases, the on ramp from m50 to n3 Blanchardstown has a limit that goes from 100 to 30. If you were to travel at 30kmh on that bridge you are going to cause a massive accident and I have never seen anyone do less than 50 on that stretch. That is just one example of a consistently high volume road having an inexplicably low limit, but don’t let bother your crappy argument. The fact is that the high and ever increasing cost of petrol and car ownership have reduced the average speed dramatically from the Celtic tiger years. Also the strategic placement of speed vans on motorways at arbitrary times causes a sea of brake lights, everyone instantly jamming on their brakes in rush hour traffic is far more dangerous than everyone traveling at 90 instead of 80.
I’m sure it’s the attitude of Patrick being called into question. It seems he thinks the twelve point limit should be increased if the penalties are going up; if that were to be the case why bother raising the penalties in the first place?
“If that’s the deputy’s attitude, what’s the point?”
Deputy.
As in Deputy Pat “not named Liz or female” O’Donovan.
I think the “point” (or one of them) would be that some speed limits are clearly inappropriate, and getting caught is pretty arbitrary. Getting caught 4 times in 3 years seems perfectly possible for a driver who drives at the prevailing speed on any given road. Many people (myself included) think that this could be unfair/disproportionate, depending on the roads in question.
There are plenty of roads with 50km/h speed limits which are clearly inappropriate. According to the RSA Free Speed Survey 2011* (most recent one I could find), ” 82% of car drivers surveyed exceeded the 50km/h limit on urban national roads, a marginal decrease of one percentage point on 2009 figures”. Followed by “53% of these drivers exceeded the speed limit by 10km/h or more”.
Maybe all these people should be banned, but that’s a lot of people who are a very small number of “let’s set up a speed check on this road today…” away from a driving ban.
*
Link didn’t work before…
http://www.rsa.ie/Documents/Road%20Safety/Speed/Speed_survey_2011.pdf
(Actually can’t watch the video where I am, but this seems like a somewhat reasonable point to make…).
Then you have the bizarre application of speed zones by some county councils. In Meath for instance when the M3 opened all secondary roads dropped to 80km/h, even roads that had apparently been quite safe to drive 100km/h for years. Now suddenly those roads have drastically changed because they have a new toll road that needs to be paid for…(but lets keep saying its for safety and not question anything)
You have some really odd ones like the road between Kells and Ardee where the straighter stretch in meath is 80km/h before becoming horribly windy when you cross into Louth yet speed goes to 100km/h
Lan – that’s easy – happened to the old N6 in Galway when the M6 opened.
N roads are the responsibility of and are maintained by NRA. R roads are not, and are the responsibility of the unsuspecting local authority. So, to avoid the cost of NRA getting stuck maintaining the N6 and M6, they renamed the N6 to the R446 (iirc…), which has a lower limit, et Voilá – the road becomes the CoCo’s problem into perptetuity………
Bang on the money, the buzzword is safety but the bureaucracy is about the bottom line. I’ll never understand the attitude of some posters here with regard to adherence to arbitrary limits even on empty motorways in good conditions. If you want to experience really dangerous driving first hand just drive down the country.
Does Patrick where long trousers, he looks a bit young for them.
Just sayin’
Garda pulls over speeding motorist and says,
“I’ve been waiting all day for you!”
Driver says,
“Sorry officer, I got here as quick as I could”
A fine woman. And a Saab driver to boot. Class.
Aging blondes and their convertibles.
Yeah, the point is as she says we have to put the fear factor into people.
Her jammer, if that’s the right word is a Saab 9-3 Cabrio. I’ll guess a 1.8t manual w/cream leather. Probably an……..06 ?