Overtaking then solid white line

[Sarah Ryan]

In many ways the Garda in question did the OP's son and other road users a big favour if he is more careful in future about how and when he overtakes - so far this year there has been 114 fatalities on Irish roads

Agreed.

My brother in law sadly was one of those numbers last year, a wife and child left behind. Families shattered.
Cliché statements but my god, every single one of them true.

I have had some very fast cars in my life, I have driven at ridiculous speed at times in my younger days but my god this has put manners on me and shone a light on the standard of driving currently on the roads.

I am ashamed and quite frankly lucky to have not had any serious accidents. I am not invincible, but sadly a lot of people think they are and they need to cop on.

 

[joer]

There are a lot of tractors and jeeps towing trailers that don't move in to let traffic pass. I was behind two of them recently.....one of them doing 50 km in a 80 km zone and many places to pull in but this driver wasn't for pulling in...

 

[Dr Strangelove]

I was behind two of them recently.....one of them doing 50 km in a 80 km zone and many places to pull in but this driver wasn't for pulling in...

If you were stuck behind them for 10 minutes you were delayed under four minutes - probably shorter than it took to write this post!

 

[misemoi]

And don't forget those tractors are vital to our food economy and tend only to be present on our roads when they have to be - no one is driving them to the shops to pick up milk. No farmer wishes to cause traffic delays and if they didn't pull in where you thought they should then I am sure they have a better knowledge of stopping distance and safety of their huge vehicles and have made that assessment correctly.

 

[mathepac]

The amount of drivers who casually cut through bends across continuous white lines on our roads, because they are basically to lazy to steer through the bends, is appalling..

I haven't seen this behaviour here, but I have in the UK where I've observed drivers take an "average" straight line through a series of bends. Terrifying to witness from behind, potentially fatal if you're travelling in the opposite direction. I've never understood the thinking behind this highly dangerous behaviour:- save on tyre wear, save time, save steering component wear? Coincidentally, on Sunday en route to visit family, the road outside Kilimor Co Galway was blocked by a head-on collision. Two passenger cars, both with heavy frontal impacts on the drivers' sides, collided on a notorious stretch of road with solid white lines and warning signs. Based on the wreckage, at least one car was over the white line, unknown reasons. Apart from the series of bends, the road rises as you leave Kilimor and drops down as you head towards the Galway-Ballinasloe Road. No idea as to the root cause, but I hope there were no serious injuries.

 

[Monbretia]

Might be best thing ever happened him! My daughter was stopped by an unmarked garda car when she was about 20 driving home from Cork, she overtook in a somewhat similar situation but the garda let her off with a warning, dunno if we even had penalty points back then! Anyway it frightened the life out of her and she even mentions to this day the effect it had on her overtaking habits, as in never does it unless absolutely essential on a single carriageway and with extreme care.

In an older car I had for many years I always said it needed a downhill slope and a clear half mile to overtake anything such was it's lack of power, that sort of thinking stuck with me!

 

[joer]

If you were stuck behind them for 10 minutes you were delayed under four minutes - probably shorter than it took to write this post!

I was actually behind it for the half hour , it should have taken me twenty minutes to get home...

 

[S class]

I haven't seen this behaviour here, but I have in the UK where I've observed drivers take an "average" straight line through a series of bends. Terrifying to witness from behind, potentially fatal if you're travelling in the opposite direction. I've never understood the thinking behind this highly dangerous behaviour:- save on tyre wear, save time, save steering component wear? Coincidentally, on Sunday en route to visit family, the road outside Kilimor Co Galway was blocked by a head-on collision. Two passenger cars, both with heavy frontal impacts on the drivers' sides, collided on a notorious stretch of road with solid white lines and warning signs. Based on the wreckage, at least one car was over the white line, unknown reasons. Apart from the series of bends, the road rises as you leave Kilimor and drops down as you head towards the Galway-Ballinasloe Road. No idea as to the root cause, but I hope there were no serious injuries.

The speeders copy rally driving techniques. Other slower drivers are just to lazy to turn their steering wheel. Highly dangerous as you say.

I reqularly drive to Glendalough via Enniskerry. It's a guaranteed certainly on every journey, that you will see several white line crossing corner cutters.

This behaviour is standard driving practice in the Alps.

 

[joer]

I haven't seen this behaviour here, but I have in the UK where I've observed drivers take an "average" straight line through a series of bends. Terrifying to witness from behind, potentially fatal if you're travelling in the opposite direction. I've never understood the thinking behind this highly dangerous behaviour:- save on tyre wear, save time, save steering component wear? Coincidentally, on Sunday en route to visit family, the road outside Kilimor Co Galway was blocked by a head-on collision. Two passenger cars, both with heavy frontal impacts on the drivers' sides, collided on a notorious stretch of road with solid white lines and warning signs. Based on the wreckage, at least one car was over the white line, unknown reasons. Apart from the series of bends, the road rises as you leave Kilimor and drops down as you head towards the Galway-Ballinasloe Road. No idea as to the root cause, but I hope there were no serious injuries.

It happens alright ...all the time. And as for roundabouts ...

 

[Monbretia]

That cutting across corners thing is fairly standard by locals on Conor Pass going down from top towards Dingle but in fairness you can see practically all the road downwards and would see well in advance if something coming, might even be guilty of it myself the odd time!

 

[jdwex]

I must look out for it. I have never noticed it.

It's more a thing down the sticks, rather than SoCoDu

 

[Gordon Gekko]

the driver didn't read the road far enough to know would he be breaking any rules once the manoeuvre was completed.

Seems in this instance when the move was completed it meant he was crossing the continuous white line. I for one wouldn't overtake a car if I could see the road markings changing ahead from broken to continuous.

The offence is not driving to the left of an unbroken white line, so it happens the moment the white line becomes unbroken if you’re to the right of it at that time. It’s not when the move is completed.

I wouldn’t either, and there’s a reason why it becomes unbroken, it usually means there’s a good reason for people not to be on the wrong side of the road at that point, e.g. a bend coming up.

 

[galwegian44]

I have never once seen a person do that last part in all my years of driving.

I see it on a daily basis on a road down to where I live, people too lazy to follow the lane and continually cross it.

 

[Itchy]

Ireland's rules of the road are more ambiguous than the UK. There is no stipulation in Ireland that, for example, you can cross the continuous white line to overtake a slow moving vehicle/cyclist where you can in the UK. However, the UK's rules of the road state that you must complete your overtaking maneuver before reaching the continuous white line.

Nonetheless, there are two types of broken white line, the longer dash with smaller gaps indicates an upcoming hazard or the start of a continuous white line. On balance, take the points!

 

[galwegian44]

so far this year there has been 114 fatalities on Irish roads

Terrible loss of life. And the relevant authorities (local authorities, Gardai etc) do not have the information available to attempt to reduce this because of our governmental fear of IT systems and information sharing.

 

[Leo]

Ireland's rules of the road are more ambiguous than the UK. There is no stipulation in Ireland that, for example, you can cross the continuous white line to overtake a slow moving vehicle/cyclist where you can in the UK.

The Act does allow for disregard of the requirements for reasons such as avoiding an obstruction, emergency situation, and others. Some requirements can be ignored if to comply would cause inconvenience, though crossing a continuous line is not one of those. The other traffic would have to be moving unreasonably slow before it could be considered an obstacle here though.

 

[S class]

I think he was just unlucky that the garda was there . Ok he crossed the continuous white line at the end of the overtaking . He was just unlucky and the garda was doing his job to the letter of the law but could have let it go.

He was lucky that he was not involved in a head-on collision which had it occured would have been 100% his fault.

He is also lucky that his dangerous driving has been pointed out to him and in future he will be safer on the road.

Every other road user is lucky that the Garda was vigilant and enforced the law.

 

[S class]

It's more a thing down the sticks, rather than SoCoDu

The urban white line crossing often occurs when the lazy steerer cuts a righthand turn into a side road and drives over the stop or yield white line on the side road.

There are a few blind junctions near where I live and numerous times I have to brake short of the stop line to avoid a collision with these dangerous corner cutters.

 

[joer]

He was lucky that he was not involved in a head-on collision which had it occured would have been 100% his fault.

He is also lucky that his dangerous driving has been pointed out to him and in future he will be safer on the road.

Every other road user is lucky that the Garda was vigilant and enforced the law.

Reading the opening thread I don't think there was any chance of a possible accident. He was passing a slow moving vehicle and was unfortunate that when he finished his overtaking he was passed the broken white line.
It doesn't seem as dramatic as you seem to suggest..
I'm sure you are a ' perfect driver' and never do or did anything wrong....and would never give anyone the benefit of the doubt.

 

[Smoneen]

Nonetheless, there are two types of broken white line, the longer dash with smaller gaps indicates an upcoming hazard or the start of a continuous white line. On balance, take the points!

I was surprised that no one else had mentioned this. The broken white lines change before the solid white line. The driver should have noticed either shorter gaps on a single white line or shorter gaps on a double white line. The road markings are there to alert you of the upcoming change.