From Weekend 1
the Garda really be held responsible for idiotically designed roundabouts such as at the Red Cow where the lane signs cause heart attacks in the unwary? Who among the councillors of Co Louth/Meath is prepared to admit that garda∅ had warned them of the dangers inherent in that road where a young couple were killed in an inferno last week?
A Saturday night in October. We are in an unmarked Garda car patrolling the Louth-Meath division. The boy racers are out, one a 17-year-old with no rear lights. He affects the same reaction as everyone else pulled in that night: surprise. He comes round the back and kicks the bumper to see if the lights appear; they don't. It emerges that he has no insurance either, nor tax, nor a licence.
The drunk driver who leads us on a merry trawl through a housing estate, hurtling round corners, missing cars and walls by millimetres, is even more amazed: "Was I that bad?" he wails incredulously, repeatedly, as his tearful wife looks on and a son hobbles about on crutches.
It's not a lucky night either for the man caught using a right-hand filter lane to over take a dozen fast-moving, tail-gating cars at about 85 m.p.h. Had someone stopped to turn right, he would have wiped them out - a scenario horribly familiar to anyone who has analysed accident patterns. His excuse? He was rushing to the airport to pick up his da.
But the most amazing spectacle of all is to be found near the Border where two huge night clubs located opposite each other on either side of the main Belfast road, are doing hectic business. At 3 a.m., hundreds of young men and women are hobbling/stumbling/strolling back and forth across one of the State's busiest primary routes as though it is a private avenue. Traffic is forced down to a 20 m.p.h. crawl although there are no speed limit signs or early warnings. It was no surprise to hear that a young man was killed at this location a few weeks later.
By 4 a.m., the two traffic garda∅, Neil McGowan and Paul Lynch, have been six hours on the road, cautioning, educating, questioning, risking their lives chasing offenders at hair-raising speeds. They have to believe that their work will yield dividends in the long term and that when cases go to court, the sanctions will be severe enough to prevent re-offending and to discourage others.
So it's a Friday morning in Drogheda District Court. The judge projects the majesty of the law from a plastic chair on a platform in what appears to be a bingo hall. The process requires that some 20 garda∅ hang around indefinitely, waiting to give evidence. One of them is stuck with the chore of reading out the 75 names and offences of those caught on speed cameras and who failed to pay the statutory £50 fine. Of the 75, about a quarter end up with fines lower than the £50. It pays to stall sometimes. The number of commercial companies listed as defendants is remarkable and some come up repeatedly. The obvious conclusion is that some find it more profitable to pay the fines than to order a valuable sales rep to slow down.
This morning, about 14 drink-driving charges prosecuted under the Alkyliser method - currently awaiting a High Court judgment - are put back to February. This means that these defendants and hundreds of others around the State, will be free to drive the roads of Ireland coming up to Christmas.
The packed court perks up when a young man caught driving the wrong way through a one-way system while drunk is up for hearing. He should be in serious trouble; he's already serving a five-year disqualification for previous offences. What he gets is a six-month sentence, suspended. He also gets an additional 10-year disqualification. As he breached the disqualification rule before, will it make any difference? A 26-year-old is up for drunkenly speeding around an estate on a Friday night, demolishing walls and causing general distress. Interestingly, his solicitor seems to be offering as a defence the fact that the young man "stayed far too late in the pub, had nothing to eat and has no recollection of his driving". It does him no harm. His client gets a £200 fine and the usual two-year disqualification.
A motorcyclist stopped because his pillion passenger wasn't wearing a helmet and who turned out to have no tax, insurance or driving licence has another hard luck story. It gets him the Probation Act and a £30 fine for no licence. A garda sighs loudly nearby.
That Friday evening, as I head back up the N2 towards Dublin, I come upon a horrific crash scene involving a car, a van and a lorry. Out of curiosity, I check round the back of the lorry; it has no rear number plate.