‘Driver Information’ Archive

RTE.IE 03/03/10

A new cross-border agreement is being introduced today that will allow the authorities in Northern Ireland and the Republic to pursue motorists for unpaid parking fines incurred in either jurisdiction.

The unpaid fines represent the loss of hundreds of thousands of pounds in revenue.

Every year, thousand of drivers who incur parking tickets on either side of the border do not pay the fines in the knowledge they cannot be pursued by the authorities.

In border counties like Donegal for example, this can mean lost revenue running into hundreds of thousands of euro.

Drivers from the Republic who have received parking fines in Northern Ireland before today are advised that the penalties are still valid and should be paid.

The pilot scheme runs until next November.

• It is an offence to use front or rear fog lights when the visibility is greater that 100m- this is to prevent them dazzling other road users.

• Driving a vehicle at 40mph there is a chance that someone you hit will die. At 20mph if you hit someone there is a 90% chance that that person will survive

• The breaking distance of a vehicle is proportional to its speed squared – so if you double the speed you quadruple the breaking distance

• Drivers that travel in excess of 25,000 miles per year have 1 in 8000 chance of a fatal accident, being killed at the wheel whilst at work – similar to the risks that a coal minor faces

• The World Health Organisation’s statistics show that in the year 2000 – 1.28 million people were killed worldwide in road traffic incidents

• If you have a car crash and you are held responsible, you are four times more likely to have a similar crash in the next year

• At night, drivers must not park on a road facing against the direction of the traffic flow unless it is in a recognised parking space

• On roads with a speed limit greater than 30 mph parking lights must be used, even in a lay-by

• It is the driver’s responsibility to ensure that any children aged 13 or under are wearing the correct seatbelt or child restraint

• Young drivers have the most crashes.  17-20 year old men have 360 crashes per 100 million km compared to 80 crashes per 100 million km for 49- 58 men. This why insurance premiums decrease as we get older.

• Despite high-profile media reports, and the terrorist’s attack in 2001, travel by air and rail is far safer than travelling by road.  How many organisations consider this when managing the safety of their travelling employees?

In March 2004, the Republic of Ireland became the first European country to restrict smoking in public places. The ban clearly covered company cars and vans, as they were included as enclosed workplaces.

Irish companies and fleet experts suggest that there is a big financial incentive to banning smoking in company vehicles as it could net thousands of pounds in savings from improved vehicle prices at “re-sale” time.

Research has been carried out with a large number of professional vehicle buyers revealed that up to hundreds of Euro’s may be wiped off a car’s value if it had been used by a heavy smoker. Used cars vary in value from about €3,500 to €7,500 for most fleet models, so if you minus €200 per vehicle, the savings are huge especially when you multiply it by a fleet of 50, 100 or 200 vehicles.

Worse still, the vehicle could be left standing without a buyer, due to the fact that some people would not consider buying a vehicle tainted by tobacco and then have to spend money on it to bring it back to showroom condition for resale.

Today buyers have the upper hand in the current market, its vital that individuals and businesses selling company vehicles make sure they are in tip top condition.
Currently in Ireland there is €3000 fine should an individual be caught smoking in a company car.

 Apparently Susie didnt know this!!!!

More than a third of penalty points cases are being struck out of court due to gardai failing to deliver the summons. Figures from the Court Services show that during the final six months of 2007, 21,429 penalty point cases were struck out because of no summons being delivered. A further 13,447 were stuck out due to the driver claiming they had not received the penalty points in the post.

These figures show that the system designed to reduce the administrative burden on gardai and to reduce the clogging of the courts with minor traffic offences is in fact failing.

A spokesman for the Garda press office stated that the Assistant Commissioner with responsibility for Traffic “will be examining the figures provided with a view to ascertaining the background to them”.

A report from the Oireachtas Transport Committee detailing recommendations to tackle Dublin’s traffic congestion has been revealed by its Chairman, Frank Fahey of Fianna Fail.

The committee has recommended that a “bus gate” be created around College Green and that O’Connell Street, Dame Street and Westmoreland Street all be closed off to traffic except for buses and taxis. The plan is to have these recommendations in place by April of next year and goes on to recommend an extra 350 buses be put on the road, with services running at 10 minute intervals off peak and three minute intervals at peak times.

The report goes onto suggest that a similar plan could be implemented in Galway, Cork, Waterford and Limerick.

The Government is set to introduce mandatory driver breath testing at all road accidents.

The Department of Transport will make it compulsory for Gardaí to carry out breath tests at the scene of car accidents. To date Gardai could only test motorists at random checkpoints. Or if they had a strong suspicion that a driver involved in a crash was drunk.

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has welcomed the proposal. Chief Executive, Noel Brett commented that the measure would affect driver behaviour and save lives on our roads.  He believes the move could be as significant as random-testing and would act as a detterent to drivers who may take a chance by drinking and driving.

RSA figures show that the number of people killed on Irish roads has dropped by almost a quarter since the introduction of Mandatory Alcohol Testing in July 2006.