Irish Road Safety
Councillor Damien Blake has asked What Can We Do? on Road Safety, in light of the recent all out carnage on Irish roads.
Ideas:
- No one under the age of 21 can drive a car without a limiter, limiting it to 70mph. (Update: Sorry, still seeing things in the old money here…) You can still kill lots of people at 70mph, but my thinking is that you are far less likely to lose control of your vehicle if your top speed is lower + more time to slow down etc.
- 21 - 25 year olds can purchase any type of car with 1.4 litre engine size or lower. Modifications to increase horsepower etc. should be illegal on these cars. Update: This is kind of meaningless, see the comments. Something more akin to a certain power to weight threshold like that on motorbikes would be better.
- If you are caught speeding, you lose your licence for 1 month. If you are caught speeding again, 6 months. Again and you are off the road for 3 years. Those caught driving during these suspended periods lose their licence permanently and face fines/jail time.
- Anyone of any age caught drink/drug driving is off the road permanently.
None of that however, can help if youth feels disconnected from these laws. If they weren’t raised with a sense of responsibility towards others then all of this is for nothing.
Rollercoasters are fun, cycling down a hill really really fast is fun, tearing around country roads in a fast car with your mates is fun. Harsher penalties may do some good. But the only thing that can temper this is a sense of personal responsibilty; that your actions have consequences. Not just for yourself, but for those in your car and outside it. How you instill that in the hardest age group to reach is a question that everyone would love to have the answer too.
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Yay, Lara Croft in Ireland!
Feshti's back and this time he's counting down the top 10 movie opening scenes of all time.
Is American opinion and culture crowding out all others?
“21 - 25 year olds can purchase any type of car with 1.4 litre engine size or lower. Modifications to increase horsepower etc. should be illegal on these cars.”
Basing things like that on cubic capacity alone is stupid. VW make a very nice twin-charged 1.4 litre engine that develops 140 or 170 bhp (depending which variant you want) without modification. It should be based on power-to-weight ratios, similar to how motorcycle licensing works. i.e. Someone with a brand new A (regular motorcycle) licence is restricted to bikes with a power to weight ratio of 0.16 kW per kg for 2 years.
After all, anyone who has driven one can tell you that a 1.4 litre (non-twincharged!) current model Golf is sluggish, to say the least, because of the weight of the car. A 1.4 litre engine in an old mark 1 Golf would be quite nippy due to the much lighter weight of the old car.
Anyways, this shouldn’t be based on age alone, it should be based on experience. I don’t think a 24 year old who has held a licence since he was 17 is more of a risk than a 30 year old that has just gotten theirs.
Phew.
Sorry for the rant, but as a young male driver (24), I am just sick to death of being tarred with the same brush as all of the irresponsible fucktards out there that just happen to be in the same age group as me. Thanks to those muppets I’ve been shafted significantly for insurance for several years. Its only now starting to approach properly affordable rates for me.
Comment by stephen — October 24, 2006 @ 12:49 pm
You are absolutely correct about the 1.4 litre thing, I just had an image of the type of car in my head. Something exactly like the restriction on motorbikes would be ideal.
As for sick of the fucktards, well; what’s your suggestion? We have to be grouped in some way…
Comment by danger — October 24, 2006 @ 1:10 pm
Stupid cunts.
Not stupid cunts.
That should cover it.
Comment by twenty — October 24, 2006 @ 4:58 pm
[…] Twenty Major (NSFW) Comments on Mulley.net EastMeath.org IrishElection.com Gerry O’Sullivan Branedy Stall The Ball Winds and Breezes RedMum The Community At Large Eirepreneur Dan Sullivan […]
Pingback by RoadSafetyBlog.com » Blog Archive » Tuesday Update: sites taking part — October 24, 2006 @ 5:34 pm
It’s fine bringing in all the rules…. pity they don’t fucking enforce any of the ones in place at the moment.
John
Comment by John Loughman — October 24, 2006 @ 8:32 pm
[…] Here’s some of the sites and blogs that have made submissions: Twenty Major (NSFW) Comments on Mulley.net EastMeath.org IrishElection.com Gerry O’Sullivan Branedy Stall The Ball Winds and Breezes RedMum The Community At Large Eirepreneur Dan Sullivan Michele Neylon Letters from the Idiot Donncha O’Caoimh Gerry Gainford Head Rambles/Richard O’Connor […]
Pingback by Cllr Damien Blake, Letterkenny Town Council » Stop The Carnage: Update — October 25, 2006 @ 2:23 pm
Let’s put speed bumps on motorways they are everywhere else
Comment by owwmykneecap — October 25, 2006 @ 2:43 pm
comment of the day goes to twenty for making me lol, good man!
Comment by ger — October 25, 2006 @ 8:40 pm
How about, in addition to the driver theory test, there is an aptitude test. “Stupid cunts” can therefore be separated from “Not stupid cunts” long, long before they ever get near a car. “Stupid cunts” could possiby sit an extra test as a result, or have to undergo extra training/tuition.
I have always thought that insurance co’s should pioneer a form of aptitude test before offering insurance (but then it’s not in their interest to discount large portions of their customer base when they don’t really have to do so).
Mandatory training is the way to go (eg: Sweden/Finland), the standard of driving on our road is frightening. It’s not the speed that kills, it’s absolute inability and ignorance. The majority of car drivers I know, don’t know if their car is front or rear wheel drive, if it has ABS/BFD, rear discs/drums, etc, etc. How the hell are they suppost to control a vehicle when they don’t understand the damn thing works and how it will behave in the event of understeer, oversteer, lock up, wheel spin, etc etc etc.
As for the three E’s. In any other country, you would only need one E. EDUCATION. Education executed properly would all but eliminate the need for ENFORCEMENT. However Ireland also needs ENGINEERING, as the interconnected potholes we call a road network get worse by the day. (I always have to laugh when I see a man with “Road Engineer” printed on a floresent jacket runs into the middle of the road with a shovel full of tar to “fix” a gaping casm in the road). As a bike, I will NOT be told that the state of or roads do not contribute to the accidents. It’s fucking LETHAL out there on a bike. Let us not forget the car drivers though, I have to bring my car to the mechanic this weekend as I have front left suspension damage from all the FUCKING POTHOLES!
how about “DARWIN AWARD NOMINEE” tatoos on the foreheads of anyone convicted of drink driving? (and drug driving if something would ever be done)
Quite the rant, I could go on all day. Let’s rap it up with, don’t expect ANYTHING meaningfull to be done by this Gov unless they can find a way to cream from it. They only want you alive to pay your taxes (and mortgages)
Comment by ger — October 25, 2006 @ 9:08 pm
“Mandatory training is the way to go (eg: Sweden/Finland)”
A driving course isn’t mandatory in Finland … you can get anyone to teach you but their car must be fitted with extra pedals.
Comment by maca — October 25, 2006 @ 10:15 pm
every one can sit down all day and discuss irish road safety but the conclusions would be the same.I know people may say this is such a a cliche but speed does kill.i generally do believe people think the faster the better.people actually dont care until it happens on their doorstep.put urself in in a situation that u have lost a close friend or realative through a car accident,,,now ur opinion has changed and hopefully ur attiude also.
Comment by janet power — October 26, 2006 @ 10:57 am
sorry about that, I could have sworn i read they introduced mandatory training, must have been a proposition. I stilll think it would be a good idea though.
As for speed, I disagree. The speed doesn’t kill, it’s inability and lack of skills that end up causing the accidents whether the driver is travelling fast or not.
Germany is only slightly ahead of Ireland the number of road deaths in this article, but according to your logic, they should be way out on their own in the numbers of dead, because they only post ‘recommended’ speeds on certain sections of motorway. I’ll still put my money on education.
Incidently, what does everyone think about all the privatised speed cameras?
Comment by ger — October 26, 2006 @ 12:21 pm
I think experience and a sense of personal reponsibilty is the most important thing. Alot of countries in the world have driving centres. These centres teach inexperienced drivers of all ages, how to react properly on the road. For example driving on ice or wet roads, driving in the dark and how to control a skid, slide etc. Not only do they teach you to control the car it also shows you how many things can go wrong and to be more careful.
Anyway the drink/drug driving issue. Can somebody explain to me why the Gaurds are out in force testing drivers on a Sunday/Monday morning, than on a Weekend night.
ALot has to be done. Including the standard of our roads. Compared to other countries in Europe, Germany, France, Spain etc etc they’re a disgrace.
Comment by concerned — October 26, 2006 @ 12:34 pm
Agreed, the drug issue needs to be tackled. Are there any countries that test for drugs? Are there any quick drug tests that can be done?
Comment by ger — October 26, 2006 @ 9:31 pm
it’s not just speed
its speed + shit roads+ crap drivers= death
anyway its all young girls fault, if they didnt blow every spotty fucker in his jumped up chickenchaser of a saxo,glanza et al well there would be a lot less of the cunts about
Comment by owwmykneecap — October 28, 2006 @ 4:27 pm