Drunken Gardai rewarded with gun and taoiseach
national |
miscellaneous |
news report 
Sunday December 01, 2002 22:40
by Phuq Hedd
Road fatalities are up, Gardai are corrupt, politicians reward Gardai
Nice little story in The Sunday Independent about a Garda that smashed into a woman stopped at a Garda checkpoint 5 years ago. He was dealt with leniently by the judge. No Gardai have ever been expelled because of drunk-driving.
Meanwhile pedestrian, cyclist and motorist deaths soar. Ah sure, don't I drive better with a few pints inside of me?!
Obviously banning drinking doesn't work: it's too hard to check everyone (the Gardai don't have the resources) so the obvious solution is to ban cars. That would have the added benefit of removing the congestion problem.
Comments (2 of 2)
Jump To Comment: 1 2A ban on drink-driving (i.e. driver can't touch a drop) and drink advertising on the roads could be helpful. In other countries you know simply not to drink at all if you're going to drive... whereas our system leads people to try and "stretch" the limit from a pint to two etc.. Drink ads on the side of the road should all be removed in my view and any government would would allow them to remain there are only playing games really with their "don't drink and drive" campaigns (wink, wink)
You may be correct Eoin, but the problem is again resources: getting the Gardai out on the roads stopping and testing motorists. The problem is that in these days of tightened belts when our national surplus has been spent on imported cars and motorways we can't afford a lot of basic services (like health and traffic policing) if the rich are to remain untaxed in order to continue the current Celtic Tiger economy. Perhaps more intelligent resource allocation (stop Gardai attacking people in the street, stop wasting our taxes on providing illegal refuelling opportunities for the USAF in Shannon) would help? Gardai could concentrate on preventing the deaths of the circa 400 people per annum that die in traffic accidents. Their spare time could be spent in minding chain-gangs of ex-politicians building scenic stone-walls to improve tourism.
On a positive note the NSC claim that November has 50% less road-deaths compared to last year. Of course they don't bother to talk about the standard-error of the measurement or anything so it's not clear how significant this is.
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