thechomper
Member +
from a Irish car site,good read
My reply to a paper's editorial on boy racers.
1. loud engines and excessively tinted windows is very welcome.
2. All too The news that gardai are to crack down on ‘boy racers’ and prosecute owners of cars fitted with often we see cars driven aggressively by young men who neither care for the law nor for their fellow road users.
3. Of course, many young people are excellent and very safe drivers.
4. On the same day as the news of the garda crackdown on boy racers, the Road Safety Authority ( RSA), launched it’s ‘He Drives, She Dies’ campaign, which calls on women not to get into a car with males who drive dangerously.
5.It is time everyone woke up to the situation.
To those concerned please take a moment to read my reply to this sensationalistic biased journalism.
My name is Mark Lester, currently I drive a Toyota Supra, it’s fitted with tinted windows and the exhaust is reasonably loud also. It’s a 3 litre petrol sports coupe. It has a top speed of 145 mph yet I’ve never been issued with as much as a parking ticket not to mind penalty points for anything else .
The “crackdown” is flawed from the perspective that it is discriminating towards the younger driver in it’s condemnation of these vehicle fittings.
The garda “armed response unit” in Cork City drive cars with these highly tinted windows, so I assume they’ll follow their own example and remove the window tints.
Various luxury vehicles are fitted as standard with these tinted windows also. I assume all these will have to be re-fitted with new windows as part of this new legislation.
There are plenty of exotic sports cars and motorbikes that have exhaust systems that are just as loud as many of these aftermarket exhaust systems. These also I assume are a massive danger to society, almost as dangerous as Swine Flu I’d imagine.
Also for many cars an exahust is actually to compliment the performance of the car. I don't condone 6 exhaust pipes hanging by a piece of twine from a 1 litre Opel Corsa but there is a legitimate reason for many of the systems that are on performance/modified cars. The problem is many people can't differentiate between a boy racer and a genuine enthusiast.
I could say I can't differentiate between a paedophile and a priest due to a few hazy incidents that were reported in the press over the years , but I tend to look at facts rather than sensationalistic fiction on where to base my thoughts.
There is no mention in the first point either of how any of the offending vehicles are a danger to anybody. To be honest about it the country’s justice system is deeply flawed from the bottom the top.
Between judges that have charged with drink driving and gardai that are more concerned with revenue collection than actually increasing road safety, the easiest target is the ‘boy racer’.
I’ve personally spent a few thousand on my own car and resent this article. I thought the echo was a paper with a higher integrity than this , but I’ve obviously been proven wrong by this.
Easily identifiable, “loud exhaust and windows tinted” will do it for the untrained eye these days it seems. It’s amazing how the generation who were born from the 50’s to 70’s now seem to lack an understanding for youth culture. I know from talking to members of this generation that cars and bikes were once enjoyed, escorts and cortina’s were driven at high speeds on public roads for years.
Today’s youth have it easier and have faster and more reliable cars. Up to this recession, they had a lot more disposable income than previous generations. It has resulted in personalisation of cars in many forms. I’m not turning a blind eye to those who are part of our culture that race at late hours but the simple fact is if there’s one at it late at night, people tend to blame the whole section of the culture for one person’s actions.
The notion by the above editorial is that it’s the young drivers with these modifications that are the cause of all this aggressive road usage. I find it hilarious that we have become so politically correct that it’s now easier to blame young drivers with said modifications than foreign van/truck drivers who consistently break driving laws in relation to hours worked etc. There has been plenty of incidents where foreign nationals have crashed as a result of tiredness from being overworked. If it’s their own greed or their bosses it’s immaterial they’ve been the cause of many road deaths over the past few years and it’s continually brushed under the carpet for the sake of political correctness.
Another point is how many of the foreign gents and ladies with foreign reg's have insurance on our shores. I see cars with these regs every single day of the week, does not seem to be much being done about these despite the fact it's going on wholesale. Why ? Because It would take a bit of effort from the garda siochana and it's just easier to shoot the fish in the barrel that is the boy racer. Vrt seems to a myth to these folks a lot of the time. I'm not generalising either as I know plenty of eastern europeans from previous work placements and realise there are plenty who do things right while living here.
Many older drivers have gained full licences since the amnesty was granted some years ago. Imagine that, just giving people full licences. It’s the fault of this country that a learner driver can hop into a car and drive without any realistic fear of any major legal backlash. The 1,000 euro learner driver fine that was supposed to happen last year just withered away as another empty threat. Parents threw a fit all over the country because their kids who probably haven’t a notion how to drive properly couldn’t drive their cars. Driving isn’t a right, it’s a responsibility, people need to be given training to succeed in how to drive properly no matter what age they are.
What has been said in the above editorial is vastly sensationalistic and offensive if I am to be honest about it. I’m a part of many car clubs organised on internet forums, from car specific clubs to independent forums.
Currently I’m staff on Ireland’s largest car enthusiast community. We have organised through some of our members a full country drive that is a massive fundraiser for Crumlin childrens hospital. The target is 5,000 euro, which we are fully confident to vastly exceed. A link is available on the official crumlin website. It’s easy to take the view that we are all scum etc. It would of course be much harder to look for the truth and look for events like these that would actually involve decent positive journalism.
As for the road safety authority . I cant believe the advert. (Well actually I can because lets face it, there isn’t much road safety so I’d hardly expect a decent marketing campaign to be organised by them)
On the face of it the rsa are basically saying
The rsa are saying the following statements:
* Women can't make a judgement call
* Women only get in cars with men for popularity reasons
* Women must be stupid. Lets remind em that they've no common sense
* Men give off some impression they're going to crash before setting off
* Men and men only are a danger
Bear in mind there is a basis for complaint on..
BCC broadcasting code
3.1 All commercial communications shall be
prepared with a sense of responsibility
both to the individual and to society and
shall not prejudice the interests of either.
All commercial communications shall be
legal, honest, decent and truthful
3.1.3 Commercial communications shall
not contain inaccurate or misleading
claims, statements, illustrations or
representations, either direct or implied
3.2.1 Commercial communications shall not
support or condone discrimination
against any person or section of the
community, in particular on the basis of
age, gender, marital status, membership
of the Traveller Community, family status,
sexual orientation, disability, race or
religion.
I’d have assumed also that this would have been known as journalists but again the opportunity was passed up to allow for the sensationalism, or the story that would indeed sell more papers. Please get off the ‘tabloid’ side of the fence and try to be open minded and look at things from 2 sides of the story.
It's not the windows ,it's not the exhaust that causes accidents, it's not a sticker on the door, it's not the fresh coat of wax applied to the car, it's not the re-spray that cost 2k, it is simply bad driving a lot of the time. It happens everyday, unfortunately it is the most inexperienced that tend to crash the most according to statistics.
There is a terrible driving standard in this country down to very little proper education about it. From the ladies in the morning traffic jam thinking they are in Peter Marks whilst siiting in the drivers seat of their BMW X5 to the taxi driver who shoots red lights and pulls out ahead of you with no indication nor prior warning, to the elderly person who for physical reasons just should not be on the road to indeed the boy racer the hero, the villain all in one.
All of these stereotypes have and will continue to be causes of accidents, bad driving is the cause not the modifications to the car.
I don't plea for leniancy for anyone that is caught committing motoring offences, but I do feel they should be treated with no more, nor less vigour than any other member of the public guilty of similar offences.
There are sections of our generation that are making it very hard for the rest of us to enjoy our passion and it looks like it’s going to get harder to do so. We don’t need this type of negative unfounded journalism . It’s easy to be negative on the opposite side of the fence, try have a more balanced outlook on issues next time around before more people start to view it as a rag.
Yours Sincerely,
Mark Lester
Anyone have any points they'd like to add to this before I send it in ?
__________________
Area Reps Manager
Last edited by Supraman; Yesterday at 02:49 AM..
My reply to a paper's editorial on boy racers.
1. loud engines and excessively tinted windows is very welcome.
2. All too The news that gardai are to crack down on ‘boy racers’ and prosecute owners of cars fitted with often we see cars driven aggressively by young men who neither care for the law nor for their fellow road users.
3. Of course, many young people are excellent and very safe drivers.
4. On the same day as the news of the garda crackdown on boy racers, the Road Safety Authority ( RSA), launched it’s ‘He Drives, She Dies’ campaign, which calls on women not to get into a car with males who drive dangerously.
5.It is time everyone woke up to the situation.
To those concerned please take a moment to read my reply to this sensationalistic biased journalism.
My name is Mark Lester, currently I drive a Toyota Supra, it’s fitted with tinted windows and the exhaust is reasonably loud also. It’s a 3 litre petrol sports coupe. It has a top speed of 145 mph yet I’ve never been issued with as much as a parking ticket not to mind penalty points for anything else .
The “crackdown” is flawed from the perspective that it is discriminating towards the younger driver in it’s condemnation of these vehicle fittings.
The garda “armed response unit” in Cork City drive cars with these highly tinted windows, so I assume they’ll follow their own example and remove the window tints.
Various luxury vehicles are fitted as standard with these tinted windows also. I assume all these will have to be re-fitted with new windows as part of this new legislation.
There are plenty of exotic sports cars and motorbikes that have exhaust systems that are just as loud as many of these aftermarket exhaust systems. These also I assume are a massive danger to society, almost as dangerous as Swine Flu I’d imagine.
Also for many cars an exahust is actually to compliment the performance of the car. I don't condone 6 exhaust pipes hanging by a piece of twine from a 1 litre Opel Corsa but there is a legitimate reason for many of the systems that are on performance/modified cars. The problem is many people can't differentiate between a boy racer and a genuine enthusiast.
I could say I can't differentiate between a paedophile and a priest due to a few hazy incidents that were reported in the press over the years , but I tend to look at facts rather than sensationalistic fiction on where to base my thoughts.
There is no mention in the first point either of how any of the offending vehicles are a danger to anybody. To be honest about it the country’s justice system is deeply flawed from the bottom the top.
Between judges that have charged with drink driving and gardai that are more concerned with revenue collection than actually increasing road safety, the easiest target is the ‘boy racer’.
I’ve personally spent a few thousand on my own car and resent this article. I thought the echo was a paper with a higher integrity than this , but I’ve obviously been proven wrong by this.
Easily identifiable, “loud exhaust and windows tinted” will do it for the untrained eye these days it seems. It’s amazing how the generation who were born from the 50’s to 70’s now seem to lack an understanding for youth culture. I know from talking to members of this generation that cars and bikes were once enjoyed, escorts and cortina’s were driven at high speeds on public roads for years.
Today’s youth have it easier and have faster and more reliable cars. Up to this recession, they had a lot more disposable income than previous generations. It has resulted in personalisation of cars in many forms. I’m not turning a blind eye to those who are part of our culture that race at late hours but the simple fact is if there’s one at it late at night, people tend to blame the whole section of the culture for one person’s actions.
The notion by the above editorial is that it’s the young drivers with these modifications that are the cause of all this aggressive road usage. I find it hilarious that we have become so politically correct that it’s now easier to blame young drivers with said modifications than foreign van/truck drivers who consistently break driving laws in relation to hours worked etc. There has been plenty of incidents where foreign nationals have crashed as a result of tiredness from being overworked. If it’s their own greed or their bosses it’s immaterial they’ve been the cause of many road deaths over the past few years and it’s continually brushed under the carpet for the sake of political correctness.
Another point is how many of the foreign gents and ladies with foreign reg's have insurance on our shores. I see cars with these regs every single day of the week, does not seem to be much being done about these despite the fact it's going on wholesale. Why ? Because It would take a bit of effort from the garda siochana and it's just easier to shoot the fish in the barrel that is the boy racer. Vrt seems to a myth to these folks a lot of the time. I'm not generalising either as I know plenty of eastern europeans from previous work placements and realise there are plenty who do things right while living here.
Many older drivers have gained full licences since the amnesty was granted some years ago. Imagine that, just giving people full licences. It’s the fault of this country that a learner driver can hop into a car and drive without any realistic fear of any major legal backlash. The 1,000 euro learner driver fine that was supposed to happen last year just withered away as another empty threat. Parents threw a fit all over the country because their kids who probably haven’t a notion how to drive properly couldn’t drive their cars. Driving isn’t a right, it’s a responsibility, people need to be given training to succeed in how to drive properly no matter what age they are.
What has been said in the above editorial is vastly sensationalistic and offensive if I am to be honest about it. I’m a part of many car clubs organised on internet forums, from car specific clubs to independent forums.
Currently I’m staff on Ireland’s largest car enthusiast community. We have organised through some of our members a full country drive that is a massive fundraiser for Crumlin childrens hospital. The target is 5,000 euro, which we are fully confident to vastly exceed. A link is available on the official crumlin website. It’s easy to take the view that we are all scum etc. It would of course be much harder to look for the truth and look for events like these that would actually involve decent positive journalism.
As for the road safety authority . I cant believe the advert. (Well actually I can because lets face it, there isn’t much road safety so I’d hardly expect a decent marketing campaign to be organised by them)
On the face of it the rsa are basically saying
The rsa are saying the following statements:
* Women can't make a judgement call
* Women only get in cars with men for popularity reasons
* Women must be stupid. Lets remind em that they've no common sense
* Men give off some impression they're going to crash before setting off
* Men and men only are a danger
Bear in mind there is a basis for complaint on..
BCC broadcasting code
3.1 All commercial communications shall be
prepared with a sense of responsibility
both to the individual and to society and
shall not prejudice the interests of either.
All commercial communications shall be
legal, honest, decent and truthful
3.1.3 Commercial communications shall
not contain inaccurate or misleading
claims, statements, illustrations or
representations, either direct or implied
3.2.1 Commercial communications shall not
support or condone discrimination
against any person or section of the
community, in particular on the basis of
age, gender, marital status, membership
of the Traveller Community, family status,
sexual orientation, disability, race or
religion.
I’d have assumed also that this would have been known as journalists but again the opportunity was passed up to allow for the sensationalism, or the story that would indeed sell more papers. Please get off the ‘tabloid’ side of the fence and try to be open minded and look at things from 2 sides of the story.
It's not the windows ,it's not the exhaust that causes accidents, it's not a sticker on the door, it's not the fresh coat of wax applied to the car, it's not the re-spray that cost 2k, it is simply bad driving a lot of the time. It happens everyday, unfortunately it is the most inexperienced that tend to crash the most according to statistics.
There is a terrible driving standard in this country down to very little proper education about it. From the ladies in the morning traffic jam thinking they are in Peter Marks whilst siiting in the drivers seat of their BMW X5 to the taxi driver who shoots red lights and pulls out ahead of you with no indication nor prior warning, to the elderly person who for physical reasons just should not be on the road to indeed the boy racer the hero, the villain all in one.
All of these stereotypes have and will continue to be causes of accidents, bad driving is the cause not the modifications to the car.
I don't plea for leniancy for anyone that is caught committing motoring offences, but I do feel they should be treated with no more, nor less vigour than any other member of the public guilty of similar offences.
There are sections of our generation that are making it very hard for the rest of us to enjoy our passion and it looks like it’s going to get harder to do so. We don’t need this type of negative unfounded journalism . It’s easy to be negative on the opposite side of the fence, try have a more balanced outlook on issues next time around before more people start to view it as a rag.
Yours Sincerely,
Mark Lester
Anyone have any points they'd like to add to this before I send it in ?
__________________
Area Reps Manager
Last edited by Supraman; Yesterday at 02:49 AM..
