I think drunk driving should be an instant driving ban. If you care that little about the safety of other people then you shouldn’t get the privilege of driving.
I think fixed fines are the wrong way to do it. It only really hurts the people who can’t afford it.
Instead it should be a set % of a person’s income – either a single % for all or pay brackets for income levels, like how we do taxes on people’s wages.
The more you earn, the greater the fee.
“This will see the fine for speeding increase from €80 to €160, while the fine for using a mobile phone while driving or for not wearing a seatbelt will double to €120”
Sounds fine by me. One of my pet peeves is when you’re driving and you look in your rear view mirror and you can obviously see someone looking down and texting
One of my biggest pet peeves is not just seeing people on their phones when driving, but people who can afford luxury or brand new cars which you’d bet your life have Bluetooth handsfree natively onboard as standard, but yet still have the phone up to their ear or are texting on it.
94 road deaths so far this year? That figure is insane, there were 140 deaths ***in total*** for the year of 2019. I don’t think the fines are enough, we need to evaluate what’s changed and what we can do to fix it.
The amount of the fine doesn’t really matter if the enforcement isn’t there. I see a speed van maybe once every month or two. I’d say I’ve seen someone pulled over by a guard maybe once this year.
When you know that you’re not going to get fined for doing something because the chances of being caught are basically zero, what’s to actually stop you from doing it?
Driving to and from the west of Ireland on the weekend, here’s what I seen.
Driving to the west.
One car literally came right into my on coming lane heading for a head on crash when the driver looked up at the last second and swung back into his own lane. Probably the most dangerous and scary thing to happen to me on the road.
Driving back home from the west.
Seen a car over take a line of about 7 cars and the car was doing 200km easily.
Plenty of psychological studies to back that severity of the punishment doesn’t influence reoccurrence, it’s the likelihood of getting caught doing the act is what influences offending.
There’s just not enough people getting caught before the damage is done.
Triple them for all I care, using phones while driving should carry a much heavier penalty than it already does. It’s not hard to drive safely and follow the rules of the road, if you’re struggling with that you shouldn’t be driving simple as
They’re absolutely clueless, every problem is met with “let’s charge them more”. Ya think people speeding are even thinking about the price of a fine?
After driving from cork to Limerick probably 30 times this year already the amount of road rage I see as a result of someone driving 60 in the 100 is incredible, some people driving like they have more than one life.
Then again the road is wide enough in multiple spots between mallow and Limerick to have a second lane to overtake safely but doesn’t.
Gonna get downvoted for this but if there’s more road deaths why is the immediate reaction to increase penalties, send more gardaí out on roads during the day, increase expenditure on speed vans, etc? Everything points to the driving population always being at fault.
76% of over 18 year olds in Ireland hold a driving license. If the population continues increasing, surely it’s obvious that road deaths will not continually decrease? If less rural transport and taxis are available, there’s going to be more drivers on the road, more drivers on the road obviously means accidents are going to happen.
I’ve read most road deaths happen late at night. Most deaths happen on rural roads and involve one person. Simply slapping extra fines on people doesn’t seem the most ideal way of increasing road safety but I’m open to correction. I’d love to see a unbiased statistical study of driver safety in Ireland because the RSA is showing itself to continually blame drivers and nothing else. (Not saying drivers aren’t to blame, there’s complete idiots on the roads but I’d be hesitant to always point the finger without looking elsewhere too)
Edit: Just a note, last year had the lowest number of road deaths on record. The fines haven’t changed in years and the deaths continually fell. Increasing fines won’t make any difference.
No matter where I drive in Ireland I drive at the limit or less if the limit is unsafe. I drive to the conditions and can stop in the distance I can see.
I constantly get overtaken. Sometimes when it is safe and sometimes when it’s not. I’ve had the Garda overtake me without blue lights on. I’ve even seen people speed past a Garda car and nothing happened.
With speeding like this I am not in any way surprised that so many people are dead.
Fines for using mobile phones should be massive – even to the point of suspending a driving license for 3-6 months for a first breach.
Fines are the only fucking thing this government knows how to do. Completely bereft of any imagination when it comes to any of the issues we face. if I was this fucking inept at my job I’d get the fucking sack!
So we can expect a reduction in road deaths as a result of the increase in fines? Unless *gasp* the government was just taking the opportunity to increase fines with no particular expectation of success?
They blame speed but ignore quality of roads and quality of driver skills in this country. There are people who almost as dangerous at low speeds as they would be at high speeds.
There are plenty of people who think that just because they are driving slow they are driving safe.
3 people is a “Spike” now. They should be handing out fucking awards to Irish drivers compared to the rest of the world
Aye, that’s why they’re doubling 🙄
Ah yes the classic Ireland solution. Charge people more that will surely fix the problem.
I assume they will double down on lack of use of indicators, middle lane hoggers, and overall carelessness on the road. Oh wait, they will only care about speed and nothing else.
Here’s a mad idea try fixing the roads bunch of useless cunts
What about all the cars with headlights and fog lights that are brighter than the sun? I regularly have to slow to a crawl when meeting them. Why is there no consistency in legislation regarding what’s safe/necessary for night time driving.
While I’m at it, what’s with every petrol station having those signs at just the right level to block your view when trying to leave the forecourt. My local circle k had 6 of them up the other day. They’re a grand height if your driving a huge SUV, for the rest of us it’s the equivalent of a full screen pop up on mobile you can’t close
If only people used the indicators as often as phones while driving
why improve the teaching when you can collect fines
25 comments
I think drunk driving should be an instant driving ban. If you care that little about the safety of other people then you shouldn’t get the privilege of driving.
I think fixed fines are the wrong way to do it. It only really hurts the people who can’t afford it.
Instead it should be a set % of a person’s income – either a single % for all or pay brackets for income levels, like how we do taxes on people’s wages.
The more you earn, the greater the fee.
“This will see the fine for speeding increase from €80 to €160, while the fine for using a mobile phone while driving or for not wearing a seatbelt will double to €120”
Sounds fine by me. One of my pet peeves is when you’re driving and you look in your rear view mirror and you can obviously see someone looking down and texting
One of my biggest pet peeves is not just seeing people on their phones when driving, but people who can afford luxury or brand new cars which you’d bet your life have Bluetooth handsfree natively onboard as standard, but yet still have the phone up to their ear or are texting on it.
94 road deaths so far this year? That figure is insane, there were 140 deaths ***in total*** for the year of 2019. I don’t think the fines are enough, we need to evaluate what’s changed and what we can do to fix it.
The amount of the fine doesn’t really matter if the enforcement isn’t there. I see a speed van maybe once every month or two. I’d say I’ve seen someone pulled over by a guard maybe once this year.
When you know that you’re not going to get fined for doing something because the chances of being caught are basically zero, what’s to actually stop you from doing it?
Driving to and from the west of Ireland on the weekend, here’s what I seen.
Driving to the west.
One car literally came right into my on coming lane heading for a head on crash when the driver looked up at the last second and swung back into his own lane. Probably the most dangerous and scary thing to happen to me on the road.
Driving back home from the west.
Seen a car over take a line of about 7 cars and the car was doing 200km easily.
Plenty of psychological studies to back that severity of the punishment doesn’t influence reoccurrence, it’s the likelihood of getting caught doing the act is what influences offending.
There’s just not enough people getting caught before the damage is done.
Triple them for all I care, using phones while driving should carry a much heavier penalty than it already does. It’s not hard to drive safely and follow the rules of the road, if you’re struggling with that you shouldn’t be driving simple as
They’re absolutely clueless, every problem is met with “let’s charge them more”. Ya think people speeding are even thinking about the price of a fine?
After driving from cork to Limerick probably 30 times this year already the amount of road rage I see as a result of someone driving 60 in the 100 is incredible, some people driving like they have more than one life.
Then again the road is wide enough in multiple spots between mallow and Limerick to have a second lane to overtake safely but doesn’t.
Gonna get downvoted for this but if there’s more road deaths why is the immediate reaction to increase penalties, send more gardaí out on roads during the day, increase expenditure on speed vans, etc? Everything points to the driving population always being at fault.
76% of over 18 year olds in Ireland hold a driving license. If the population continues increasing, surely it’s obvious that road deaths will not continually decrease? If less rural transport and taxis are available, there’s going to be more drivers on the road, more drivers on the road obviously means accidents are going to happen.
I’ve read most road deaths happen late at night. Most deaths happen on rural roads and involve one person. Simply slapping extra fines on people doesn’t seem the most ideal way of increasing road safety but I’m open to correction. I’d love to see a unbiased statistical study of driver safety in Ireland because the RSA is showing itself to continually blame drivers and nothing else. (Not saying drivers aren’t to blame, there’s complete idiots on the roads but I’d be hesitant to always point the finger without looking elsewhere too)
Edit: Just a note, last year had the lowest number of road deaths on record. The fines haven’t changed in years and the deaths continually fell. Increasing fines won’t make any difference.
No matter where I drive in Ireland I drive at the limit or less if the limit is unsafe. I drive to the conditions and can stop in the distance I can see.
I constantly get overtaken. Sometimes when it is safe and sometimes when it’s not. I’ve had the Garda overtake me without blue lights on. I’ve even seen people speed past a Garda car and nothing happened.
With speeding like this I am not in any way surprised that so many people are dead.
Fines for using mobile phones should be massive – even to the point of suspending a driving license for 3-6 months for a first breach.
Fines are the only fucking thing this government knows how to do. Completely bereft of any imagination when it comes to any of the issues we face. if I was this fucking inept at my job I’d get the fucking sack!
So we can expect a reduction in road deaths as a result of the increase in fines? Unless *gasp* the government was just taking the opportunity to increase fines with no particular expectation of success?
They blame speed but ignore quality of roads and quality of driver skills in this country. There are people who almost as dangerous at low speeds as they would be at high speeds.
There are plenty of people who think that just because they are driving slow they are driving safe.
3 people is a “Spike” now. They should be handing out fucking awards to Irish drivers compared to the rest of the world
Aye, that’s why they’re doubling 🙄
Ah yes the classic Ireland solution. Charge people more that will surely fix the problem.
I assume they will double down on lack of use of indicators, middle lane hoggers, and overall carelessness on the road. Oh wait, they will only care about speed and nothing else.
Here’s a mad idea try fixing the roads bunch of useless cunts
What about all the cars with headlights and fog lights that are brighter than the sun? I regularly have to slow to a crawl when meeting them. Why is there no consistency in legislation regarding what’s safe/necessary for night time driving.
While I’m at it, what’s with every petrol station having those signs at just the right level to block your view when trying to leave the forecourt. My local circle k had 6 of them up the other day. They’re a grand height if your driving a huge SUV, for the rest of us it’s the equivalent of a full screen pop up on mobile you can’t close
If only people used the indicators as often as phones while driving
why improve the teaching when you can collect fines