If you want to become a pilot you have to do a test that determines how you can process a bombardment of information coming at you from all sides. How can your brain select from the view out the cockpit window, your instrument readouts, what you hear on the radio, what the co-pilot is telling you and sensory feedback from the plane itself, i.e. the controls, which bits of information to focus your concentration on.

Some people do not have the ability to filter. they cannot concentrate on one bit of information alone, they get completely overwhelmed and either panic or freeze. It is not dissimilar in a car.

When doing a right turn, you must take into account what’s behind you, in front of you, and, of course, to the right and left. All this while taking into account how fast you are, what gear you’re in, signaling and possibly arguing with whoever is in the vehicle with you at the time. Some people are great and can do all the above while on the phone (hope the insurance pays).

The same principle comes into action here.

Some people are not able to filter information, they are subjected to a constant torrent of it flooding at them from all angles at all times.

If you see someone approaching a turn and slowing down to 2.5 km/h about 2 miles before they approach the turn while signaling left instead of right, then stop for 5 minutes and finally turn while almost crashing head on into oncoming traffic they didn’t see and continue oblivious to the mess of beeping and swearing they left behind, you can be pretty sure that person has trouble filtering information according to what’s important and not. To them a lamppost on the side of the street has the same priority as a car screaming at them at 100 km/h with lights flashing and horn blaring.

If a pilot fails this test he is told he cannot become a pilot. If a driver fails his test, he repeats it 258 times till he finds a tester kind enough to finally pass him, so he can go out there and wreak havoc.

It’s about time we all stopped regarding driving as a god-given right that entitles each and everyone of us to be on the roads and took testing a bit more serious and introduce retesting to weed out people who are ticking time bombs and will someday kill themselves or a school bus full of children, because they where concentrating on a potted plant by the side of the road instead of the oncoming bus.

A: You are either so inbred, senile and doped up that you simply don’t notice other people around you, probably don’t know where you are, what you are doing, where you are going, why you are here, what time it is, where you live and what your name is.

B: You are perfectly aware of any of the above, but get some kind of sadistic pleasure in pulling out on others as they do a perfectly legal 100 km/h and holding them back for as long as possible and as many others as you can possibly achieve in a day.

Either way, anyone not capable of achieving 100 km/h on a perfectly straight road in good weather condition should seriously consider handing in their license. Cars weren’t built for you.

In other countries you would get pulled out of your car and shot, stabbed and/or beaten up, but the Irish are too damn polite (whimpish) on the road.

I am absolutely merciless and if I can traumatise even one of these morons enough so they will never sit behind the wheel of a car again, I can die a happy man.

Yeah.

My case is that, not only is this rubbish, but I should be allowed to drive faster than the Irish.

When I did my licence in Germany, first I had to pass a theory test, know about some basic technical aspects of the car (lights, oil, coolant, check and change tyres, etc…) and also complete a compulsory first aid test.

After that I was allowed to sit in the car for my first time (no provisional licences there, you either got one, or you’re not driving sunshine) and after making sure I understood all the controls came a few weeks of constant lessons. That’s right, weeks.

We have a minimum set number of lessons which you must complete, regardless of how good you are. And these lessons include driving by night, in adverse weather and on the motorway. Time and time again my instructor would berate me for not going fast enough. I was encouraged to stick to the limit as closely as possible, taking road conditions into account. On the motorway (or Autobahn) he pushed me until I was comfortable doing 160 km/h cruising speed. This is not an unusual speed by any means and I have, over the years, reached speeds of up to 220 km/h, without any trouble whatsoever.

The missing element here is obeying the speed limit and reading the road ahead, since most Irish never seem to think past their bumpers they should restricted to 80.

So, since I hold a proper licence and not something that some people here got from a cereal box, I should be allowed to drive faster.

So there…

And an add on:

What really gets me about this item on the Last Word is that it is another one in a long line of increasingly deranged fascist bullyboys (and girls) who seem to have taken to spouting ever more bizarre nonsense about banning this, forcing us to do that, outlawing something or other.
They must know they are talking utter rubbish and I can only hope for the sake of the Irish that they can see through rubbish like that.
What worries me is the fact that there seems to be an audience for this claptrap, but as Germany has illustrated all those years ago, if someone just shouts loud enough and waves his arms about and bangs the podium and promises to “deal with the problem once and for all”, people will fall for it.
And before you know it the lunatics are running the asylum.
Anyone who spouts this kind of rubbish must know that his party is in very deep trouble, only hanging on by one finger and has to turn to the politics of desperation in order to hold on by any means.
Dustin for Taoiseach I say, better him than those muppets.

He simply recorded the phrase “it’s speed and alcohol” onto a dictaphone and put it on a loop. As much as the point was brought to him that some roads are atrocious and overtaking on them is a dangerous gamble, this was a man on a mission: To Ignore What Everyone Else Says And Just Plow On.

Almost 90% of accidents are caused by human error.

Yes, but that error also includes some eejit trying to overtake on a totally inadequate, narrow, dangerous road, because after 30 minutes he couldn’t take being stuck behind a sileage spreader anymore. Not an actual case, but we’ve all been there, especially on that narrow, winding, potholed boreeen that we call the main Limerick to Cork Road. I might call it a country lane, I’ve seen better driveways into farms, it’s a joke.

And he’s right: If we all stopped overtaking and just resigned ourselves to being stuck behind farm machinery at 40 mp/h for the vast majority of our trips, there’d be no accidents, no one would die, we’d have more time to admire the scenery and everyone would live happily ever after.

And that would be true if you lived in a country where gingerbread men fall from the sky, the fairies bring you your slippers and santa claus is your PA.

What he forgets is human nature. If the speed limit is posted at 100 km/h and some gombeen has decided he’s going to hold up the road at 60 km/h, people will overtake. Some will have more patience than others, some will have none and some will try to overtake 17 cars and a truck in one go at 180 km/h.

Simply calling the motorist names and threatening everyone (The “Tarzan Beating His Chest” approach, favored by such anti personal choice fascists such as Luke Clancy and Grainne Kenny) alternating with despair because “no one’s listening” doesn’t cut much ice.

“Human Error” is a constant and you have to take it into account when designing the roads in the first place. You cannot simply berate people and hope we will all miraculously change our basic human mindset overnight.

In some countries the introduction of 2+1 roads has reduced death due to head on collisions by 50%. That is a practical move, it works, it gives you the illusion of progress that will keep the most impatient from killing everyone else, therefore it could be called intelligent, so it could never work in Ireland.

We prefer some hairy gorilla beating his chest, we love people like this here, yeah, gimme some of that tough guy approach, just because it hasn’t worked for the last 20 years, doesn’t mean it’s not going to start working anytime soon!

Don’t get me wrong, enforcement is paramount, I cannot deny that, but there has to be some kind of payoff, something that shows the state or whoever understands, no one would mind.

But to simply cut and paste the phrase “Speed Kills” from the British road safety catalouge and passing it off as a comprehensive Irish road safety strategy is not enough. Brian Farrel clearly demonstrated he wasn’t prepared to listen to anyone’s voice but his own, sorry we have enough of these people droning on like foghorns, hearing nothing but the sound of their own voice and finding it quite pleasant, so I don’t feel the need to listen to him.

C-, do better next time.

I’m a foreign national, have been in Ireland for a few years and it’s bad for me that a few idiots are focusing attention on foreigners and by extension, me. I abide by the law and I see plenty of shite going on on the roads. The statistics are undeniable, there is a growing issue here.
I have a valid license, issued in another country and EU law requires the authorities here to accept this document. That’s the way it is, it’s EU law and there’s no way round that.
It is not my fault if the authorities of here cannot deal with legal, valid documentation. All the handwringing and blaming “dem fordeigners” isn’t good enough. Get the finger out, get organised and get your system in order.
I personally would never, ever drive without having everything in order. My car is Irish registered, taxed, insured, NCT, the works. And since I got it here it’s also right hand drive. It’s just easier for overtaking. You cannot however ban left hand drive vehicles here. Some of those are just passing tourists and since European cars are, by and large, left hand drive, that’s the way it goes. You cannot decide what type of car you will allow on your roads and what not.
If the Irish government does not deem it necessary to provide the legislation it needs to deal with a problem it KNEW would exist in the future, it has left itself wide open for abuse and that’s exactly what’s happening right now.
Don’t blame the foreigners, get a system that works.
If you do anything silly in another country, you are stopped by the police and have to pay an on the spot fine. There and then. If you cannot pay you will be jailed till you do. If you can’t, they’ll crush your car. And then you are forever banned from driving there again. They mean business. Not so here. You can rely on most people to behave responsibly, but some arseholes will take the piss. And the Irish have no one to blame but themselves.

Limerick pedestrians seem to have an advanced deathwish! Cars appear nothing more than hallucinations to them, something to be ignored, since it can’t possibly hurt them.

On my trip through Limerick today I had several people walk into the path of my car, even though my light was green, theirs was red and I was moving pretty well.

There are only three possible reasons I can imagine for this:

1: They have not learnt the difference between stop and go. So here goes:

If you see the silhouette of a man standing still in red on the traffic light (yes, they’re not just pretty lights, they mean something!) it means that you are to stand still like a good little boy/girl and not try to run out between these big, noisy, moving metal thingies we call cars. They may seriously inhibit your future ability to live when they roll over your head at 50 km/h. When the little man magically turns green and appears as though he is walking you may carefully cross the roads. But be careful now, some car drivers have also not learnt the difference between green and red.

2: To drugged to notice

Sorry, can’t help you there…

3: They are depressed about living in Limerick and want to die.

While I can totally understand this, it also has nothing to do with me. Please don’t drag me into your misery, find an alternative way to end your existence that doesn’t involve other people.

So, to summarise: In a collision between 1200 to 2000 kilogram of metal going 50 km/h and a bag of meat, bones, blood and intestines at approximately 50 to 300 kilograms (there are a lot of chippers in Limerick) going about 5 km/h, they meatbag will loose! Not only it’s shape, most of it’s blood and guts, but also it’s life. You can, of course, say “Oh, I don’t care, cars should do all the looking out and I can just walk around with my head in the clouds, besides I have a good solicitor”, well he ain’t gonna help you at the pearly gates.

This is simply an instrument for coping with the pressure out there.

I watched some programs on road rage and I don’t agree with them on the basis that their message always is “No, everything is fine on the road, YOU have the problem, YOU are the nutcase and YOU need to change”

One just needs to glance over this website to see that is not so. There is an awful lot of shite behaviour out there, it’s just a matter from detaching yourself from it.

It’s an old chestnut, but leaving yourself plenty of time is paramount. I recently spent two hours driving like a man possessed to make a flight (by the skin of my teeth) and by the time I got there I was beyond freaked out.

Prepare for the day ahead the evening before, you get so much better rest when you know you can just get up and go the next morning.

Have some breakfast, it works wonders and in Ireland you never know when you’re going to find some food, since rest stations are non existent and the food offered in petrol stations is mostly lousy and expensive.

Once you’re on the road, work on your karma. (no really, it works)

I used to view other road users simply in terms of what they where going to do to me next, i.e. that truck will pull out and hold me up, that guy doing 30 km/h won’t let me pass, I’ll never get past that yummy mummy in her MPV, that prick in the fast lane doing 80 won’t pull over, etc…

If you say to yourself “I just know it’s going to be awful” it will be.

Just say to yourself “nice day for a drive” and turn the radio on. I personally don’t like to listen to heavily topical shows (Last Word, etc…), too depressing.

Don’t bother too much with the day that lies ahead, just concentrate on the here and now.

Your primary task is getting through the day in one piece.

The amazing thing is that it works.

Traffic seems less heavy, holdups not as long, I let other people out, they in turn are nicer to me and the next person. All that has a knock on effect. The more stress, rage and anger we bring on the road, the more it will be fed back to us via other roadusers.

The opposite is just as true. If you let someone out, they will do the same to the next guy, same for him, it’s like a chain reaction that spreads some much needed goodwill around.

Of course there will be people (arseholes) out there who will behave in any of the ways described on this website. Don’t let them get you. If they get you, you will be more stressed and in less likely to be in a mood to be nice to other people on the road and there’s that negative loop again.

I was driving out of Ennis on a long (too long) 50 km/h zone and the guy in front of me did exactly 43.5 km/h to annoy me. As he approached his exit he moved further right so I couldn’t pass him and slowed down further to hold me up for as long as anyhow possible. This was annoying, but I don’t give in to it now. Once you change your attitude, you will be amazed what a difference it makes. If I even notice it, I will most likely laugh at it.

Let others do what they want, but I thought about the possibility of getting into a stupid incident and running over some innocent bystander.

I simply cannot afford to take that risk.

Don’t worry, I haven’t turned into a wimp, I’m still basically a white van man, I drive fast (within the limits of course), but now I don’t get annoyed at the stupidity of others. It’s not up to me to stop them and give them a ticket, but I still will snap them and plaster them all over shite drivers. And that’s good enough for them. The most underrated slogan is Arrive Alive!

My Greatest Hits

Having said that, this kind of behavior is totally the norm and accepted by all in Ennistymon. My theory is that everyone who is deemed to be too much of a risk on the road gets deported to Corofin. And people who are too bad for Corofin get moved to Ennistymon.

There’s a big parade planned for 7pm. What does some armchair warrior in some government department come up with?

Let’s switch off all the traffic lights and close down all the most important roads in the city starting at 11 am.

The entirely predictable result: Chaos, bedlam, gridlock.

Whoever had this bright idea deserves to be tarred and feathered in a specially organised parade for this event, no need to close of any roads and tie his body onto a lamp post on Sarsfield Bridge so we throw eggs at him.

Good and well if someone has reason to celebrate, just don’t make me suffer for it.