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news
GardaiCyclist fined after submitting dangerous driving video to police
A cyclist has been fined by gardaí after submitting videos of unsafe overtaking because officers decided he had been 'cycling without reasonable consideration'.
Speaking to The Times, John, who regularly reports instances of bad driving, said he had been notified that he would receive two €40 fines by the Irish Police.
He said that this was the first time he had been fined in more than two years of submitting videos and complaints about dangerous drivers.
He slammed the 'hypocrisy' of the gardaí and said cyclists can be positioned in the middle of the road if they need to be.
John, who posts his videos on his Twitter account, Rightobikeit, said: “I have probably sent in 40 complaints and at least 20 have resulted in points or prosecutions against the driver.”
In one of the videos for which he was fined, he is seen moving from the left lane to the right lane as they merge.
He allows one car to pass before he signals and attempts to enter the lane.
A van then drives closely past him.
He submitted the video to gardaí to complain about the van’s driving, and said the driver received three penalty points and a fine of €120.
However, John also received a fine of €40 for his 'positioning on the road' and for 'unclear hand signals'.
Haha. What hypocrisy. I must yield in a dedicated cycle lane to a car that indicates yet a driver must not slow for a cyclist who has not only indicated but has already moved into the lane giving plenty of room? https://t.co/qWELOTz3YT pic.twitter.com/jHfRoY4IxH
— Righttobikeit (@righttobikeit) February 24, 2021
In another video John is cycling along when an impatient driver overtakes him and brakes sharply to take a right turn.
John said he had to be in the centre of the road to avoid poor road conditions and potholes.
John continued: “Cyclists can be positioned in the centre of the lane if they need to be. Of course you move in for cars, but they should only be passing when it is safe and clear.
"And I think a lot of drivers just don’t understand that sometimes there are potholes and branches sticking out that prevent you from keeping in."
He said the same driver later pulled alongside him and began harassing him by following him and filming him on his mobile phone.
After convo with inspector re recent €40 fine, I was assured the decision was impartial and based solely on the evidence. 2 hours later I recieved notice of a 2nd fine for this. I must ow assume that reporting the 2 further offenses here will be met with the same outcome pic.twitter.com/OZo6d0klXX
— Righttobikeit (@righttobikeit) February 23, 2021
John said the driver received three penalty points and a fine of €120, but he himself was also handed a €40 fine for his positioning on the road.
John added: “Cyclists are usually vilified for being on the road, but it is the job of the driver who has a licence and has training to give us space and overtake safely.
"It is because of poorly trained drivers that many people are too scared to take up cycling.”In 2019, the Road Safety Authorities clarified that cyclists can take the 'primary position' in the 'centre of the road'.
In a similar story earlier this week in England a cyclist who reported a motorist for driving on a pavement was threatened with a fine for riding on a footpath.
Police have since confirmed that no further action would be taken against the cyclist.
Speaking to road.cc, John said he was now concerned about submitting other videos in case he received another fine.
He added: "The law 'cycling without reasonable consideration' is vague and broad in its potential application and is absent of any accompanying guidance or supporting guidance from the Road Safety Authority in the Rules of the Road - our Highway code.
"This leaves cyclists at the mercy of inspectors with little understanding of cyclists needs."
Ciarán Cannon, Fine Gael TD for Galway East, said: “In the two cases where the gentlemen had been fined, I looked at the videos, in my opinion he had been wholly compliant to do exactly that.
"I am utterly mystified as to how the gardaí formed a different opinion.”
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19 comments
First of all well done to the cylist for submitting footage on behalf of us all. For what it's worth I think both motorists deserve their punishments, the second one is the worst as its so pointless. The first, even if the cylist is wrong to change lanes he should slow down as in any collision there's only going to be one outcome. As for the fines, I feel there is some justification for one as the cyclist is changing lanes and we should make sure it's clear before we do so. The second one I can't see what the cyclist is doing wrong so may be the highway code is different in Ireland.
I would go to trial and complain about the police.
Sending in videos of close pass footage and not abiding by the Highway code yourself is always going to lead to something like this. Clearly the cyclist's positioning on the road was poor, so he is also at fault. The road system is a shared resource, so we all have a responsibility to use it correctly and responsibly.
So which part of the highway code do you think the cyclist was not following (i.e. the explicit rule)? Since when is cycling in primary position not correct and responsible?
You know nothing about correct and responsible usage of the roads.
Just because you singnal before a lane change does not make you in the right. The van was preety close He should of waited let the van pass then change lanes. Just as he would of done if he was driving a car.Simply put he cut the van off.
*should HAVE, would HAVE
Which lane did he change from? There was only one lane, and he was ahead of the van in it. Your observation is a typical ignorant presumption that a cyclist being on the left hand side has yielded priority to vehicles behind. Anyone overtaking another road user should be observant of the conditions in front of that user before trying to overtake them. The responsibiity of a safe overtake is entirely with the person overtaking and not with the person being overtaken. No overtake, no safety issue.
Great first post.
Are you the driver in the completely unnecessary 4x4 behemoth ?
Clearly the cyclist's postion reflected the quality of the road surface, road markings, road width and oncoming traffic.
Which part of the Irish highway code was not followed then?
Being central in the lane when crossing junctions is exactly where the highway code says you should be. I couldn't see anything wrong with his road position in those examples.
Even the merging lanes, you can see the arrows for merging quite clearly, the van driver should have expected and allowed the cyclist to merge.
The police are very wrong here and I would hope he contests this in court.
no I dont see anything wrong with that positioning, surface doesnt look great on that junction, plus road markings actually encourage you to be out there, as for the 4x4, why, just why do you overtake like that when you are immediately turning right anyway at least they got points/fined for that.
but, our new friends view is annoyingly common amongst drivers, Ive certainly had drivers,including instructors, tell me I should only ride positioned in the gutter basically to leave the road space for them
and its not helped by the fact a bundle of cyclists reinforce that behaviour by riding like that, so riding prime becomes often the exception that people encounter, not the default, and then all you need is one of those drivers of that view to be one wearing a police uniform, and this is the result.
obviously it should be contested, but I dont know the ROI system to know if that doesnt just create a bunch more problems for the cyclist in this case.
He cut the van off. Yes a bike takes less space on the road but if they were the same size he did move in front of him at a short distance. I dont think he would of done that lane change if he was in a car. The van was going faster so it a insafe lane change the van does not need to slow down because it a bike just as it does not need to slow down if it was another car. Yes I have a bike and yes I have a car.
Hello mister 1 post
1 post wonder.
Tftfy
Piss off troll.
I wouldnt pay the fine.
I would get a solictor that maybe specialises in traffic laws/offenses and go contest the fines in court.
--- the way i see this is whoever is picking up his reports is getting pissed off that he is making them actually do their job. So they fine him a few times in the hopes to deter him from sending more in.
Either that or one of the officers in the department is related to one of the drivers who got reported/issued points so it became a tit for tat response. --- Im hoping this is not the case
Ditto and also raise a complaint as well. If they're going to dick around with road safety, then they should have some more paperwork to do and explain why they are failing cyclists.
I can't see his arms at all times in the video so I don't think the video would stand up in court as evidence of "unclear hand signals" as it's not possible to prove that he didn't use a clear hand signal.
Guilty of being a cyclist then.
Utterly absurd