Month: July 2024

Deaths from crashes on Irish roads have surpassed the 100 mark this year, up on the figure for this time last year. That’s in spite of all the road safety campaigns, awareness programmes, GoSafe vans and other speed enforcement measures by An Garda Siochana. Nothing seems to be working and in the meantime the carnage continues.

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has just launched a new campaign of advertisements in its latest effort to raise awareness of dangerous behaviours on Irish roads, such as speeding, drink driving, distracted driving, not wearing seatbelts and drug driving.

The ads, we’re told, are specifically designed around insights gleaned from younger men who drive on rural roads to ensure that they are relevant to that sub-audience.

The Department of Transport has welcomed the campaign which they say complements the important measures introduced earlier this year by the Road Traffic Act 2024. The Act seeks to target the most dangerous driving behaviours through harsher penalties, safer speed limits and mandatory roadside drug testing for drivers involved in serious collisions.

Last year, 2023, the RSA ran another campaign asking all road users for their support in changing their behaviour to make Irish roads safer. They were encouraging people to “have a conversation with friends, family members and colleagues” and to “look at their own behaviour and commit to making one positive change that would contribute to safer roads”.

These campaigns are well intentioned, but do they achieve anything? The messages are important, but do they actually reach their target audience? If they do, are they having any impact? The fact that road deaths are increasing would suggest not. I’ve heard some of these ads and I think they are amateurish to be honest. I can’t see them having much of an impact so what next?

Well, the garda commissioner said he wants to increase the punishment for bad driving. He says consideration should be given to graduated fines to ensure drivers travelling at higher speeds are more severely punished. Mr. Harris said the introduction of a graduated penalty point system in proportion with the relevant offence would deter poor driving and bad behaviours on Irish roads. I don’t agree.

I don’t see the point in dreaming up further legislation or increasing the existing penalties because what we have at the moment is perfectly adequate but it’s not being enforced. That’s the real problem – lack of enforcement. Maybe that’s due to lack of resources, but the strength of An Garda Siochana today isn’t that far off what it was twenty years ago so where are they?

Back then, performing check points was a routine part of a tour of duty for uniformed gardai on regular outdoor duties, particularly during the night shift. Gardai could perform several of these during their tour and they could pop up anywhere on the main thoroughfares or the back roads.

They were effective on several fronts. When they were performed regularly, they were seen as a normal feature of community life and became a topic of conversation in the locality. That alone acted as a road safety awareness campaign. On the practical side, they led to the detection of traffic offences, made life difficult for travelling criminals and encouraged drivers leaving the pubs at closing time to consider leaving the car behind.

I have no idea what the current policy is in relation to checkpoints, but the population of Ireland has increased to over five million so it’s fair to assume there is a lot more traffic on the roads these days than there was when I was a serving garda. That suggests to me that there is more of a need for checkpoints than ever.

I was stopped recently on Water Street in Cork. It was after mid-night, and I was on my way to collect people from the airport. I’m pretty certain it was the first time I’ve encountered a checkpoint since I retired in 2015. If that’s a national trend, then it’s sending out the wrong message to motorists.

I don’t have any faith in the RSA adverts either. There is a cohort of drivers who won’t take a blind bit of notice of ads on TV or radio. Their poor driving will only improve after a life changing accident or through a face-to-face interaction with a member of An Garda Siochana or a judge in the District Court. There is no substitute for being caught in the act and facing a prosecution, fine or caution.

Much of the bad driving we see these days is because there is no fear of detection. I was driving home the other morning about 9.30am and I met a guy driving towards me. He was overtaking a line of parked cars. He had a mobile phone in one hand while steering with the other. Almost immediately after that, I met a woman driving into town and she too had a mobile phone up to her ear.

Examples of bad driving are easily found, and that complaint is being echoed across the length and breadth of the country. Jump into your car and take a short spin around your area and you will quickly see enough offences being committed to put a nice dent in any official garda notebook. That’s because offenders have no fear of being observed by a member of An Garda Siochana and why would they?

It is widely accepted that there is a distinct lack of garda visibility under the Drew Harris regime and the strength of the Garda Traffic Corps, has fallen by 17% in the last ten years. The RSA has called for a significant ramping-up of visible enforcement and that’s the crux of the matter.

Visibility is key. We have enough legislation so let’s have fewer ads and more action.

I don’t mind flying. We’re told it’s a safe form of transport and I believe that. With highly trained pilots and onboard computers ready to deal with any emergency that may arise I reckon we’re probably at more of a risk crossing the road than we are up in the clouds. So, time to sit back and relax.

There are people though, who prefer to add a bit of excitement to their time in the sky, like parachutists for example. They’re not content to just sit there and enjoy the ride, no sir. They prefer to exit the aircraft before it lands, putting their faith in a parachute which is little more than a piece of silk attached to a few strings.

I can’t think of a single inducement that would encourage me to do that. My daughter did a charity jump years ago and I was sick at the thought of it. Falling to Earth at 200 km per hour armed with only a backpack is not my idea of fun.

But there are plenty who enjoy it and they’re even happy to pay for the privilege. There are parachute clubs all over the world to cater for these thrill seekers, including one in Ireland, where people can throw themselves out of a plane at heights of ten to thirteen thousand feet. Enthusiasts will tell you that you haven’t lived until you have enjoyed the thrill of free fall at speed attached to a parachute.

The experts tell us that while skydiving is a lot safer than most people think, it does carry risks and it’s the ‘risk’ bit that sticks in my mind. They also tell us that most skydiving accidents happen with the parachute open, usually due to poor judgment or avoidable risks taken during the landing. Broken legs, sprained ankles, and fractured pelvises are heard of far more than a fall where the parachute is unflyable.

On the rare occasion that a parachute doesn’t open, there is a reserve canopy in place. This backup parachute will deploy if the main parachute doesn’t open. The chances of a parachute not opening are greater than one in 1,000, and the possibility of the reserve also not opening or being unflyable is more than one in a million. OK, the odds are good, but I’m still not convinced.

The experts have some advice too if for any reason, your main parachute doesn’t open or is faulty. Apparently, the thing to remember is to stay calm; the most significant risk to the reserve parachute not saving you, is panic. That may well be, but I can pretty much guarantee if I was hurtling towards the N25 with a nicely folded parachute refusing to get out of its bag there would be lots of panic.

If both parachutes do fail to open, the advice is to spread your body out as wide and horizontal as possible in an X shape; any speed reduction you can cause will help. Then it would help if you started planning the safest possible landing spot. Anything that can absorb the impact will be best, such as snow, tree branches, marshy areas, or a freshly ploughed field, then brace for a strong impact.

There have been some incredible instances of people falling out of airplanes without parachutes and surviving. Alan Magee, an American airman survived a 22,000-foot fall from a damaged B-17 bomber over France in 1943. Thrown clear of the aircraft and rendered unconscious, he fell four miles before crashing through the glass roof of St. Nazaire train station, shattering it and miraculously surviving, but with severe injuries.

On July 6th, 2021, a British soldier miraculously survived a 15,000-foot fall over the skies of Atascadero, California. The British parachutist’s training exercise went awry when his chute failed to properly deploy. He crashed through the roof of a bungalow, fell through the attic, and landed in the kitchen. When he was found, the soldier was conscious and complained of some pain but incredibly wasn’t seriously injured. Thankfully, no one was home at the time.

At 4,000ft, Jordan Hatmaker pulled the string and realised something was very wrong. A series of unfortunate incidents combined to leave her heading for the ground without a parachute. Seconds later, she crash-landed in a field and remembers the blades of grass in her mouth as she prayed out loud and screamed for help. She knew she had broken her back, but it was only three weeks into her hospital stay that she realised the full extent of her injuries.

She had broken several vertebrae, one of which had also crushed her spinal cord. In the operating theatre surgeons discovered she was leaking spinal fluid. In addition, she had hit the ground with her left leg first, causing her tibia to break near the ankle. Two years later, Hatmaker went back to work.

Emma Carey was on a European backpacking holiday when she went on a tandem skydive in Switzerland. When she jumped, she remembers the incredible feeling of being at peace. But the feeling of euphoria was short-lived for the 20-year-old backpacker.

It seems that when the instructor pulled the parachute it got tangled with the emergency chute that had been triggered at the same time. The parachutes didn’t open correctly and got tangled around the instructor’s neck, strangling him until he passed out.

They hit the ground, hard. Emma landed on her stomach and the instructor landed on top of her. She was awake for the entire ordeal with a broken back, a broken pelvis, jaw and teeth. Thankfully she survived and has the date of her accident tattooed on her arm as a reminder that every day is a blessing.

I’ll wait until the plane lands before I get off thank you very much.

I came across an interesting story recently on Allthatsinteresting.com about a guy called Buford Pusser. It immediately brought to mind, images of ‘Dirty Harry’ Callaghan, the character played by the 6 foot 4 inch Clint Eastwood in the 1970’s movies. Harry Callaghan was a no-nonsense police detective in San Francisco who fought a war against crime armed with his trusty 44 Magnum. He rarely took any prisoners and neither, it seems did Buford Pusser.

Pusser was born on December 12, 1937, in Adamsville in McNairy County, Tennessee to the son of the police chief of that town. He was a natural athlete and played on both the football and basketball teams in high school. By the time he reached adulthood, he stood at 6’6” and weighed 250 pounds, a physically intimidating specimen. He later joined the U.S. Marines but was discharged when he was diagnosed as asthmatic.

In 1957, at a loose end, Pusser moved to Chicago and entered the local wrestling scene. Because of his massive size and strength, he earned the nickname “Buford the Bull.” It was there that he met Pauline Mullins, who he would soon marry. Shortly thereafter, they returned to Pusser’s hometown of Adamsville, Tennessee where he joined local law enforcement.

Though he was just 25 years old, the strong, no-nonsense Pusser was soon elected chief of police, a position that he would hold for about two years until 1964, when a car accident took the life of the McNairy County Sheriff, James Dickey.

Dickey, a U.S. Army World War II veteran, was driving near the Mississippi-Tennessee state line when he had a blowout. Having lost control of his car, he veered off the edge of the road, tumbled down an embankment, and crashed into a wooded area. There was a suggestion at the time that organised crime had a hand in the accident.

Following Dickey’s death, Pusser was elected to fill his shoes and at 27 years old, Pusser became the youngest sheriff in the state’s history. Organized crime was becoming so violent that law-abiding citizens feared for their safety, but they noticed a change after Pusser took office.

He threw himself into his work, turning his attention to fighting the Dixie Mafia and the State Line Mob, two organized crime groups operating on the border between Tennessee and Mississippi making thousands of dollars from the illegal sale of moonshine, illegal gambling, prostitution, robbery, and murder.

Pusser was virtually the only member of law enforcement focusing on organized crime in this region at the time and he made some enemies. Not long after his election, he was assaulted by members of the moonshining ring and stabbed seven times. They were trying to prevent Pusser from shutting down their operation.

It wasn’t the only attempt on his life. He survived multiple gunshot wounds and other assassination attempts over the years too. He also fended off physical attacks, once fighting off six men at the same time, sending three to the hospital and three to jail. On another occasion, he was run over by a car.

The most devastating assassination attempt though came in August 1967. At around 4:30 a.m. on August 12, 1967, Pusser received a call that there was a disturbance near the state line. Buford’s wife, Pauline, didn’t like him going there on his own so she insisted on riding along with him.

As they approached the area, a car suddenly pulled up alongside them and opened fire on Pusser’s vehicle. The initial shots missed Buford but struck his wife in the head. Pusser sped away to shake off his attackers and when he thought he had lost them, he pulled over and tended to Pauline’s wounds. The other car then suddenly reappeared, and Pusser’s car was riddled with bullets again. Pauline was shot a second time and died while Buford Pusser’s was shot in the face.

The second car took off and Pusser was left for dead. He was soon discovered and taken to the hospital where he underwent multiple reconstructive surgeries on his face. After 18 days he was released vowing to avenge his wife’s killers. He could identify the four alleged assassins including Dixie Mafia leader, Kirksey McCord Nix Jr., as the mastermind who had orchestrated the ambush.

Pusser believed the assassination attempt was related to a case from the previous year, where he was shot at while investigating a robbery. He returned fire and killed Louise Hathcock, the common-law wife of Kirksey Nix. Pusser was never able to bring Nix, or any of the others, to trial, but Nix was sentenced to life in prison in 1972 for a separate murder and was later charged with ordering two more murders while behind bars.

One way or another though, the three other killers eventually paid the price for their crimes. One of them, Carl Douglas “Towhead” White, was found fatally shot in Mississippi in 1969. Rumours quickly swirled that Pusser himself had a hand in the killing, though this was never confirmed.

Not long after that, the last two alleged hitmen, George McGann and Gary McDaniel, were also found shot to death in Texas in 1970. Again, many believed that Pusser had orchestrated their deaths, but this was never proven either. His alleged revenge for his wife’s death and the virtual one-man war he waged against organised crime made him a widely revered figure in Tennessee.

Pusser himself came to an untimely end in August 21, 1974, when he suddenly lost control of his car and crashed into an embankment. The car burst into flames, and he died in a similar fashion to the sheriff who preceded him. He was just 36 when he perished and while the crash is officially recorded as an accident, many believe he too was murdered by the criminal underworld.

I’m on the verge of quitting Twitter, or X as it’s now called. I joined in 2011 and it was fun for a few years. I used to check in every morning to see what happened overnight and to enjoy some witty comments. It was a pleasant way to pass some time, but those days are gone.

It’s no longer a place for friendly interaction and banter. There are too many half-wits full of hatred and anger – from all walks of life – who like nothing better than to hurl abuse at everyone and everything without the slightest regard for facts, truth or reason.

It’s impossible to visit the site now without coming across numerous videos of people screaming foul, threatening and grossly insulting language at people they disagree with, often accompanied by threats of actual violence. It seems nobody is immune when it comes receiving vile attacks online, and I’m fed up with it.

In recent years they have taken their hatred onto the streets and into the real world. More recently they have targeted the family home of An Taoiseach and whether you agree with his politics or not, intimidating his wife and children is not acceptable.

And before the usual nut-jobs jump up and down, screaming about freedom of speech and the right to peacefully demonstrate, let’s be realistic. The people behaving like this are not peaceful protesters or genuine demonstrators. They champion no cause but their own and most of the time I suspect they have no idea what that even is.

They don’t have as much support as they claim to have either as the recent local election results showed. They are incapable of presenting a coherent argument, and when they are challenged on their beliefs, they revert to type using the only tactic they understand – cursing and swearing loudly in the language of the trenches.

These characters were around in my day too. Not as many maybe but they were there. There was no social media back then, but they did like to play to a crowd which was the next best thing. They had similar profiles too.

Back then, there were many decent people living on social welfare for a variety of genuine reasons, but the characters I’m referring to were usually unemployed, not because they couldn’t find a job – they were just too lazy to work.

They got up at lunchtime and made their way to the bookies. Then headed to the pub where they spent the rest of the day drinking and educating likeminded souls on what was wrong with the country and how to fix it even though they wouldn’t lift a finger themselves.

I’ll give you a quick example. Many years ago, the community in one of the local authority estates organised a clean-up day. It was a lovely Saturday morning and everyone in the area was out with lawnmowers, strimming machines, shovels and brushes doing their bit to tidy the place for the summer.

Close to lunchtime, one of the aforementioned wasters, stood at his front door after getting out of bed. He leaned on the doorframe smoking a cigarette while he sniggered at the others. A few of the neighbours suggested that he might lend a hand, but he only laughed and ridiculed them for doing the work of the council. He would probably boast of that encounter later to his mates.

In my thirty-five years in An Garda Siochana, I met lots of those people. As a friend of mine used say – they were too lazy to work but too cute to starve. They were always first in line to get any kind of benefit from the State and the first to moan about it afterwards. The only queue they were never keen to join was the one that offered employment.

The advent of social media has given these modern day deadheads a platform. They don’t even need to make a coherent statement. They can scream and shout to their hearts content in the certain knowledge that someone with a phone will record it and upload it so they can share it with their friends in their local.

The abuse I’ve seen recently goes far beyond anything I experienced. I took my fair share of it just as police officers the world over do, but it was never delivered with such venom. I marshalled many demonstrations over the years and most went off without a hitch. If someone got out of hand, they were dealt with by the courts, but that policy seems to have changed.

The lack of police action today is emboldening these miscreants and encouraging more outrageous behaviour. I know I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but this level of anti-social behaviour goes way beyond what is acceptable to most ordinary people. It has to stop.

Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee said recently, “We’ve seen many hundreds of protests. The vast, vast majority peaceful but a small number where a violent element has tried to undermine our society. Throughout every one of these events, garda members respected the democratic right of people to protest, to make their voice heard, while upholding the law and responding appropriately to the shameful acts of violence.”

“I know that I’m joined by every single person in this country who values our freedom and our democratic rights when I condemn utterly and completely any apparent attacks on gardaí. Any such attack represents an attack on our entire community. It is an attack on our very democracy and our fundamental rights.”

She knows the thin blue line is wafer thin and under resourced. There may come a time when it may not be in a position to defend the attack on the democracy that she talks about so passionately.

The Irish aviation industry recently launched a campaign to tackle unruly passenger behaviour in airports and on flights. All Irish airlines and airports, An Garda Síochána, the Irish Aviation Authority, AirNav Ireland, ground handlers and international aviation organisations have all come together to tackle the issue.

It sets out how the aviation industry aims to combat the issue of unruly behaviour on flights. It plans to boost its ability to ban passengers through no-fly lists, ensure Gardaí are informed of all criminal activity, enhance training for cabin crew and improve communication to passengers to prevent unruly behaviour.

They acknowledge that while the vast majority of people have the highest regard for fellow passengers, there is a small minority whose behaviour at airports or on aircraft can have a significant impact on the experience and safety of other passengers or flight crew.

I think that’s a good move and not before time but maybe they should consider going a step further. A few years ago, there was a poll on whether there should be a ban on selling alcohol in airports before 10am. The result was very close with 49.2% saying no and 48.6% saying yes and the remainder had no opinion either way.

Until recently, it’s not something I thought about too much to be honest because it wouldn’t really bother me whether alcohol was available or not. I rarely drink in an airport or during a flight simply because I find travelling tough enough on the body at the best of times without adding drink to the mix. I prefer to keep myself hydrated with water but that’s just me.

There was a time when I used to catch a 6.30am flight out of Dublin which meant I had to be in the airport around 4.30am. It wasn’t unusual to see guys drinking pints at that hour and there’s nothing wrong with having a drink before a flight to kick start the holiday if that’s your thing. Lots of people do it sensibly and the best of luck to them.

Some nervous fliers find a pre-flight drink helps to calm the nerves and that’s ok too. The problems start though when the drinking becomes excessive. Drunk passengers can cause a variety of issues that not only affect them but can also impact other travellers through delayed or diverted flights and I reckon that’s becoming more of an issue. There are many examples of this.

A woman was charged with public order offences after gardaí removed a group of “disruptive” passengers from a flight headed for Ibiza. Passengers onboard a Ryanair flight from Dublin Airport to Ibiza experienced delays in taking off over the disturbance.

In another example, a group of seven people were escorted by police off a Bristol flight to Malaga after they became disruptive. The pilot was forced to stop the plane shortly before take-off and return to its stand while the group were removed from the aircraft. The flight was further delayed while the passenger’s luggage was offloaded.

A flight from Glasgow was forced to make an emergency landing due to a disruptive “drunken” passenger on board, causing a delay of over 5 hours for hundreds of passengers. These stories made the news, but many other examples never made the headlines.

I was travelling through Gatwick Airport in London recently and I called into a bar/restaurant for some breakfast. It was about 9.30am and the airport was busy and so was the pub. There were six guys in their mid to late twenties sitting around a table and the drink was flowing.  They were surrounded on all sides by families with young children.

To say they were loud would be an understatement and while I was there, they became even louder. They were playing drinking games while noisily cheering and roaring each other on. Their behaviour was way over the top. Thankfully there was an absence of Irish accents which was some consolation.

It’s fair to assume they were catching a flight and I wondered about the condition these guys were likely to be in by the time they were due to board. They were in a bad state when I saw them and that was unlikely to improve, so the future wasn’t looking too bright for their fellow travellers. That flight was about to become a lot more tiresome for the other passengers.

Having a ban on the sale of alcohol before 10am might have been useful in this instance but would have little effect on unruly passengers taking afternoon or evening flights. Some sort of sobriety check prior to boarding might be a better weapon but this would probably be difficult to enforce except in cases where the drunkenness is obvious.

Back in the pub, I expected a member of staff to approach these guys and advise them to calm down. I was there for about 45 miniutes and I didn’t see that happen, but they were served with more alcohol when it was obvious they had enough. Surely the bar staff have a responsibility there.

And what about the responsibility of airline staff? Drunk passengers must present their passport and boarding pass at the boarding gate along with everyone else. Should staff there assess the condition of drunk passengers and question their fitness to travel?

It would seem reasonable to carry out a risk assessment at that point under health and safety regulations given the potential implications for the airline, its crew and the other travellers.

But apart from the safety aspect, the comfort of the remaining passengers should also be given consideration. They paid for their seats and are entitled to a peaceful journey. The entitlement of the many to enjoy a pleasant flight should take precedence over the right of the few to drink themselves silly.