Serious damage to St. Patrick's Bridge

[MrX]

It seems that joy riders have now taken to demolishing city centre landmarks. There is now a huge, fenced off, car-sized hole in the stone wall / railings of St. Patrick's Bridge.

Hopefully this can be repaired and restored to its original state.

Something really needs to be done about the idiots who are driving around the city centre. I have wittnessed some truly lethal driving late at night. Pedestrians, other road users and even valuable architectural landmarks are at serious risk.

[gbohr]

Originally Posted by MrX

It seems that joy riders have now taken to demolishing city centre landmarks. There is now a huge, fenced off, car-sized hole in the stone wall / railings of St. Patrick's Bridge.

Hopefully this can be repaired and restored to its original state.

Something really needs to be done about the idiots who are driving around the city centre. I have wittnessed some truly lethal driving late at night. Pedestrians, other road users and even valuable architectural landmarks are at serious risk.

Any pictures?

[who_me]

Noticed this too last night, it's on the Patrick St. end of the bridge, on the Merchant's Quay side. They either came from the Opera House direction, or from Patrick St. and veered off to the right, up onto the footpath and knocking the balusters & balustrade (I think those are the correct terms).

I live on Patricks Quay, and can hear cars racing up and down the quays every night of the week. I presume Gardai give them a free reign, presuming a chase would be more dangerous.

[who_me]

Btw, was just by Parliament Bridge on Saturday, and there's a big chunk taken out of that too.

With all these accidents, you'd think someone had planning in to replace them..

[MrX]

The driver concerned should be charged the entire repair cost. Surely, if they've done a legger they were caught on CCTV ! There are enough cameras around the city.

This kind of thing is just totally unacceptable, the city centre isn't a go-cart track.

These repairs are going to be extremely expensive, we could be talking tens, if not hundreds of thousands. If this comes from the City's budget, it means that some other service or facility or project gets starved of cash.

Apart from that, driving like that through a city centre is likely to cause deaths.

These guys need to be cracked down upon very hard e.g. jail time for dangerous driving, driving bans and if they're not insured, their cars seized and crushed.

[jungle]

Can't speak for Patrick's Bridge, but the driver at Parliament Bridge was detained at the scene.

Their insurance companies should be liable for damage done, assuming the Corpo goes about pursuing them correctly.

[MrX]

Originally Posted by jungle

Can't speak for Patrick's Bridge, but the driver at Parliament Bridge was detained at the scene.

Their insurance companies should be liable for damage done, assuming the Corpo goes about pursuing them correctly.

Assuming they actually have insurance!

[foremanjoe]

Originally Posted by MrX

These guys need to be cracked down upon very hard e.g. jail time for dangerous driving, driving bans and if they're not insured, their cars seized and crushed.

Joyriders everywhere will rue the day they angered the architecture community!
Their days are surely numbered now...

[MrX]

I just with the 'powers that be' would enforce some of the traffic laws, other than the easy ones i.e. minor speeding offenses on dual-carriageways / motorways.

It's quite clear that this is a pretty serious issue if bits of the city are being demolished by late night drivers. I suppose we'll just have to wait, as usual, until someone's killed before something's done about it.

[who_me]

I live in the city centre (Patricks Quay) and every night can see/hear cars racing along Merchants and Patricks Quays. This is just a few hundred yards away from the main Garda station in the city (Anglesea St.), yet I never see anything done about it.

IMO, they seem to have decided it's too dangerous to chase them, so have decided to let them be.