Working, Living & Travelling In Ireland

Tag: Dangerous Driving

  • My Day in Court in Gort( Part 1 )

    My Day in Court in Gort( Part 1 )

    Why was I in Court?

    If you have just landed on my blog, you may not know why I was in Court in Gort. Remember back in March 2021 I was dangerously overtaken by a cattle truck on the Gort To Loughrea Road. As it happened, I was testing out a GoPro, so the whole incident was recorded. You can read article 1 and article 2 about the actual event. At the time I wrote a detailed article but didn’t publish it, as I knew the case would get appealed and didn’t want to jinx anything. Read on to find out what happened in Court in Gort that day .

    Dangerous Driving March ‘21

    Back in March ‘21, I had a frightful experience when I was closely overtaken at speed by a person driving a cattle truck on the Gort to Loughrea Road. That day was also the very first day I was trying out a GoPro. Once I got home, I checked if the camera actually recorded, and it had. I then contacted Traffic Watch by phone to report dangerous Driving.

    Email of Court Appearance

    I received an email from the Garda that took my statement, to let me know that the case was going to court, and asked for my presence as a witness. I was to turn up at 10:30 AM at the Court Building in Gort and he would brief me then.

    The Court Building in Gort

    As I was waiting outside, I met another person, who was also waiting for Garda Donohue. We briefly exchanged stories, and he said he was there for assault. As our conversation progressed, I came to understand he was the assaulter. He just said, yeah, it happened.

    When Garda Donohue arrived, turns out it wasn’t my Garda Donohue. I decided to go up the stairs, up to the Court Room

    Court Room Drama

    The Court Building dates back to as far as 1810, if only those walls could talk about Court Room Drama. I had never set foot in the Court Building in Gort, so I felt a bit of a voyeur. The Court was packed and Judge Mary Larkin was in full swing judging cases, some of them were postponed or struck off, some of the defendants didn’t turn up, other cases needed more info, and some had other (connected or not connected) ongoing cases. Slowly but surely the Court Room was emptying. I was told that they keep the more difficult cases to the end… my case was heard last.. 

    The case with the Horse Whip

    Before my case was heard, there was a case about an assault between two farmers in the Kilcolgan area. It felt slightly surreal, listening to two grown men, telling conflicting stories about what happened that day. The accused said the defendant threw stones at him , whilst the defendant said he received a blow to his face from a horsewhip, which of course the accused denied. On top of all that, there was also the escape of a cow. Hard to keep track of all the elements, and zone in on those elements that are actually relevant. Ultimately the judge didn’t find the accused a credible witness and convicted him of assault, you can read the story here.

    Cyclist was dangerously overtaken by a cattle truck 

    And then it was my turn, where Inspector Boland stated the case where a cyclist, myself, was dangerously overtaken by a cattle truck on the Gort to Loughrea Road. Video footage is available. Before the footage was shown, the defendant’s solicitor said upfront they did not contest the evidence, however the issue was that one didn’t  know who was driving the truck, more about that later.

    Video footage of  Cyclist being dangerously overtaken

    Video footage was then shown on the laptop of Garda Donohue. The footage was played a  few times to really see what happened. The video shows how the cattle truck overtook me at very close range, with oncoming traffic, and not moving even one inch onto the other part road section. The video also shows how other cars behind the truck do overtake me , giving me space by going on the other part of the road. The judge said, how come other cars were able to give her space and you did not?

    To the witness stand

    I was then called to the witness stand, first time ever in my life. I was then “sworn in” repeating the words of the court registrar. It reminded me of reciting my wedding vows 23 years ago.  I was to speak in the microphone and look at the judge. My voice initially quivered to then go into giving my story how I cycled from my house in Peterswell to Peterswell Cross and then took a left onto the Gort to Loughrea Road, into the direction of Castleday.  I said I was a qualified CycleRight instructor, and teach children and adults to safely cycle. I said It’s a windy, narrow road. At one of the bendier parts of the road, I was dangerously overtaken by a cattle truck, with oncoming traffic. It all went very fast, and before I knew it, the cattle truck had overtaken me. The feeling of a large vehicle overtaking you at very close range is very frightful, realising that if you don’t stay completely still, keep your bike under control, and clench your hands to the handlebars, you may not see the end of the day. I am a mother of two and wife, and I said that the driver endangered my life, and I would not want anyone to experience what I had, or even worse, lose their live. Drivers need to respect cyclists and keep their distance.

    I was then asked what I did next, and I explained I am part of the Galway Cycling Campaign who told me to ring Traffic Watch to lodge my complaint and how Garda Donohue came to my house to collect the video evidence.

    Cross- Examination

    The defendant’s solicitor then did a cross-examination, asking me if I was sure it happened on Friday the 19th of March. I then asked if he doubted this happened. He then asked me how the date works on the GoPro, in the sense that I needed to set the date. I told him it was done automatically, and I did not have to set the date.

    Defendant and Employer in the witness box

    The defendant then testified, and when the judge asked him about driving the cattle truck that day, he said he did not remember if he was driving the cattle truck that day. When his employer was in the witness box, he said that 5 people (including himself) drive the truck, but he could not be sure who drove the truck. It was most definitely not him ( the owner), as he was in Kerry that day. Tacograms were shown when the defendant drove the truck on different days, but no evidence was produced that he did not drive the cattle truck that day. The judge then asked the owner how he pays his employees, and he said it is done based on their word, so there is no paper trail. When asked how the defendant gets paid, he said he does not get paid , as they have something in place where he does the owner a favour, and he gets to use the cattle truck as return favour. 

    Garda in the witness box

    Garda Donohue had spoken to the defendant by phone and asked him if he drove the cattle truck on the 19th, he said he could not remember. He then contacted his employer who did say it was the defendant that drove the truck. This is where it all gets a bit cloudy, as the employer then said  “ it might have been the defendant” . The employer was cautioned by the superintendent that he was under oath and that it is a serious offence to lie under oath.

    The judge mentioned that the owner of the business was currently under investigation on how he runs his business, which was something the owner was not aware of.

    Judge’s decision

    Quoting the legal term “ suspension of disbelieve”, do not make me believe the incredible, she convicted the driver of dangerous driving and suspended his license for 4 years. She said if there was a murder on the 19th of March, and you were possibly a suspect, you would have an alibi. The defendant did not, at any given time, provide an alibi. She then set an appeal amount of 250 Euro.

    1.5 meter of a distance when overtaking a cyclist

    I am very glad that my case was fairly heard, and the driver was convicted of a traffic offence that could have lost my life. The driver appealed the conviction, just writing up the final Court Case. Come back soon:) 

    Intermedium thoughts

    I hope it will send a clear message to drivers on narrow roads in the country,  that when overtaking cyclists, IT is a recommendation to allow 1.5 meters of distance on an 80 km road. If that distance is not there and/or if there is oncoming traffic, a driver SHOULD NOT overtake. This recommendation was introduced thanks to the hard work of Phil Skelton of WexBug, who campaigned for this when he himself had a very similar experience to mine. It’s not a “law” as it ‘s extremely to define the distance, do you measure it from the side of the handle bars? Where the cyclists sits. In any case, there are signs that you’ll see on road, direct effect of Phil’s work.

    Traffic Signs

    South Galway has very few of the newly introduced traffic signs, and I have started to work with Galway County Council to get signs erected on the Ardrahan to Gort Stretch.  The road between Gort and Loughrea needs signs to remind drivers to slow down + those signs and also the old N18, the section between Ardrahan and Gort. As it happens I have been emailing my local Independent Councillor Geraldine Donohue ever since this incident happened and just two weeks ago I saw there are signs erected on the old N18 between Gort , Kiltartan, Labane and Ardrahan. I was delighted to see them.

     

     

    Please contact your local councillor if you know of a road that needs those signs!



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  • Do you know where to report dangerous driving in Ireland – Part 2

    Do you know where to report dangerous driving in Ireland – Part 2

    Dangerous Driving incident

    Just over 2 weeks ago, I reported an incident of dangerous driving to Traffic Watch. I was overtaken by a truck on a busy, narrow road, with a solid white line with oncoming traffic.  I am a member of Galway Cycling, and they gave me the telephone number of Traffic Watch to contact to report the incident.

    So where can you report Dangerous driving? Members of the public can call Traffic Watch lo-call number 1890 205 805 to report aggressive driver behaviour, driving hazards and traffic-related incidents. Calls are answered and logged by civilian personnel at the Garda Information Services Centre, Castlebar. The reported incident is then forwarded to the relevant Garda Station for investigation.  More info here. I recommend you ring as soon as possible to keep the memory fresh. Having footage will be very helpful. I wrote about it here.

    Any update?

    As I hadn’t heard since I reported the incident, I contacted the Garda Station in Galway City, who put me in contact with the Garda station in Loughrea. Just today the investigating Garda was in contact, and I am now awaiting for a written statement to be taken in a few days time…

    Stayin’ Alive at 1.5 m campaign

    Once I published my blog post, I got a message from Phil Skelton. I had seen the 1.5 M signs on the Facebook page from WexBug, but didn’t know the finer details.  Turns out it was Phil Skelton ( Phil if you are reading this, thank you so much!!)  that spearheaded the Irish campaign for cyclist specific minimum passing distance legislation, it was called the Stayin’ Alive at 1.5 campaign. Phil has now moved into the role of Chair of WexBUG.
     
    Phil tells me that the sign you see on our WexBUG social media are not just for Wexford, they are an agreed Irish road sign now. 
     
    1.5 meter Distance Traffic Sign
    1.5 m Meter Distance
     
    As some background please see the Stayin Alive at 1.5 website.  http://www.safecyclingireland.org/
     
    In a nutshell, Phil started this campaign following a close pass not too dissimilar to what just happened to me. He started a National campaign in 2014.
     
    The key aims of the campaign were:
    • 1. to change the rules of the road where a minimum passing distance would be included – this happened in 2017
    • 2. To roll out a RSA specific campaign. 
    • 3.The ad that you see now on TV is a direct result of my lobbying 
    • 4. To change the then ambiguous dangerous overtaking law – this was changed via secondary legislation to a cyclist specific one in 2019 with increased penalties following direct lobbying. 
    • 5. The rollout of funded road signage throughout Ireland – this is what you are seeing now in many counties. So rather than us at WexBUG convincing Wexford Co Co to erect signage, this has come from the Dept Transport. To be clear, WexBUG did not need to engage local councillors in this process. The council themselves applied for funding when to opportunity was announced and are now towards the finish in rolling them out. 

    And what is the situation in Galway County Council?

    Galway County Council seems to have missed out on the vital step to apply for funding.  Every local authority except Kilkenny and Galway applied for funding for these and many are now in the process of erecting the signage. Covid 19 meant that there was a delay. Why didn’t Galway Co. Co. apply for signs? Has money been “ringfenced for these signs? I would love to hear the answer. Below is an overview of all the Counties that applied for funding for these signs via circular RST 04 2019. 
     
    Applications for funding by Council
     

    Since the pandemic, so many people are out walking and cycling on rural roads, but there is no provision to alert drivers that the road is shared ánd to remind them to reduce speed. Dangerous driving is a real issue. This is another sign we should get on those roads where it is known people are walking and cycling. 

    Shared Road Sign

     

     

    And last but not least, there is the whole initiative of Love30, check out their website here. Check out the submission by Galway Cycling Campaign to bring down speed limits ( for now with limited success.) I’d like to start a debate on the 80 km speed on country roads, how can a country road be safe if the speed limit is 80 km?

    Love30 

    How can you help?

    I asked Phil for further info on how to go about identifying what roads are eligible and to suggest locations for the signs. He shared recommendations following a zoom chat with the Local Authority Road Safety Officer group in early October last year (He was not sure if Galway Co Co were in attendance) These were the recommendations that he made to them on that subject:

    • This first one is a link to some cycling routes from Sport Ireland. There will be other cycling routes in your counties too. This is where I would start with safe overtaking signage. https://www.sportireland.ie/outdoors/cycling-on-road/trails (This is a strange one, it seems there is only one trail in Clifden? )
    • This next link is to the Strava heat map. This is an app used mainly by leisure and sports riders and will give a good overview of roads in your local authority area that are used by these riders. https://www.strava.com/heatmap#7.00/-120.90000/38.36000/hot/ride
    • This link is from the RSA’s cyclist collision data 2005-2016. This will help to identify particular problematic areas. https://www.google.com/mymaps/viewer?mid=1PpqLW_G84YQc26WQ1fFMFifHNfAz3fys&hl=en_GB    (This really shows the overview of minor, major and fatalities on roads in South Galway – I had a quick look, and it looks like the R380 from Gort to Loughrea has at least one fatality on the Gort Side and a few other incidents and 1 fatality towards Loughrea… 
    • Lastly, please engage with local cycling advocacy groups or/and cycling clubs for further location suggestions.

    I am looking for people to help me to research the above and request input from Galway Co. Co to make our road safer.  Please contact me here.

    Join my Facebook Group Gort Cycling Trails to find out about #GortCycleTrails #SafeCycletrails and sign up here to get updates on when I’ll be setting up a community cycle from Woodford to Flagmount later in the summer( when restrictions are eased hopefully). These are the loops I have mapped so far.

     

     

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  • Do you know where to report dangerous driving in Ireland – Part 1

    Do you know where to report dangerous driving in Ireland – Part 1

    Dangerous Driving 

    Have you ever been in a situation where you witnessed or underwent a situation of dangerous driving?  Do you know where to report an incident of dangerous driving? Keep on reading and I’ll tell you! Until last Friday, I had no idea where to report incidents of dangerous driving.

    So what happened?

    On my cycle last Friday, I took a left onto the Gort-Loughrea Road in the direction of CastleDaly. It’s a windy, narrow road, and mostly no hard shoulder( or if there is some kind of a notion of a hard shoulder, it’s overgrown or there is debris on it). A truck overtook me at a high speed, without making any attempt to give me space, with oncoming traffic and continued to drive at high speed. A clear case of dangerous driving. It all went extremely fast, so at the time I didn’t have much time to think. It was only when I almost felt the truck I realized this was a matter of life and death. I really believe if I had made any wrong move as the truck overtook me, I would not be here to tell the tale.

    Where to report Dangerous Driving?

    Members of the public can call Traffic Watch lo-call number 1890 205 805 NEW NUMBER 0818 205 805 to report aggressive driver behaviour, driving hazards and traffic-related incidents. Calls are answered and logged by civilian personnel at the Garda Information Services Centre, Castlebar. The reported incident is then forwarded to the relevant Garda Station for investigation.  More info here. I recommend you ring as soon as possible to keep the memory fresh. Having footage will be very helpful.

    I didn’t know about the above, however, my colleagues at Galway Cycling Campaign did, and they encouraged me to report. Reporting is essential to make roads safer in South Galway. There are very few reports made to the Garda in South Galway, as people don’t have proof, or can’t remember the vehicle/license plate.

    I was testing out how to use a GoPro, so I have video footage. It was only when I got home, I had an opportunity to see what really happened, and see how so very close that truck was… and how lucky I am to tell this scary tale. I am now awaiting a call back from the relevant Garda Station, who will then issue a pulse number and investigate the case. ( I will share the footage once it has been investigated). Update 22/09 – Driver was convicted – License suspended for 4 years. Well, it then got appealed and conviction was reduced to “Careless Driving” , 5 penalty points and fine of 500 Euros( I am about to write up the second Court Case)

    Traffic Signs

    There are no signs on this stretch of road to remind other road users to keep their distance from cyclists.  ( Image by WEXBug , a community group in Wexford with people from all walks of life striving to make Co. Wexford a better and safer place for people to cycle.) They have been successful in getting signs like these erected, so I am encouraged the same can be achieved in South Galway.

    I think we need to get signs like these on busier roads such as the Gort to Loughrea Road.

    1.5 meter Distance Traffic Sign
    1.5 m Meter Distance

    Since the pandemic, so many people are out walking and cycling on rural roads, but there is no provision to alert drivers that the road is shared ánd to remind them to reduce speed. Dangerous driving is a real issue. This is another sign we should get on those roads where it is known people are walking and cycling. 

    Shared Road Sign

     

     

    And last but not least, there is the whole initiative of Love30, check out their website here. Check out the submission by Galway Cycling Campaign to bring down speed limits ( for now with limited success.) I’d like to start a debate on the 80 km speed on country roads, how can a country road be safe if the speed limit is 80 km?

    Love30 

    How can you help?

    If you are out walking and cycling, and cars /trucks are flying past without regard for other road users ( after all they can do up to 80 km ), contact your local councillor and ask for their help to get any of the above traffic signs. It’s time we start having a voice before someone ends up in statistic because of dangerous driving.

    Join my Facebook Group Gort Cycling Trails to find out about #GortCycleTrails #SafeCycletrails and sign up here to get updates on when I’ll be setting up community cycles and learn to cycle classes for children and refresher courses for adults. These are the loops I have mapped so far.

     

     

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