Driver fined by Garda for this very close pass of cyclist | Video
Posted on: May 4th, 2021
The driver in this clip (below) has been fined €120 and incurred three penalty points on their licence for the close pass move in the footage.
The incident occurred in Co Cork in February, with a report lodged to gadai in Carrigaline. Confirmation has now emerged the incident has resulted in a sanction for the driver.
Perhaps the one thing that can be said in the driver’s favour is they appear to be driving more slowly than other road users around them. However, while the pass was slower than other drivers on the same stretch of road it was very close, as the footage shows.
The video and update on the outcome of the case was shared by Twitter user @righttobikeit, who has taken a number of similar cases to the gardai. However, while he has seen action taken in a lot of those cases, he was also recently told by gardai he faced a fine himself for the manner of his cycling captured in one of his videos, though he insisted he had done nothing wrong.
This is the first successful outcome against a driver that this cyclist has secured since being informed by gardai he was to be fined, with one of his own videos effectively being used in evidence against him.
How to report
If you feel a driver has overtaken you in a problematic way, you take
your footage of the incident to the local gardai or report it via the
TrafficWatch facility, which you can read more information about at this link.
Under a recent change to laws in the Republic, there is now a new specific offence of dangerously overtaking a cyclist. Drivers can be pursued under that, or via general road traffic rules and laws, and cases can be dealt with through a fixed charge notice or through the courts.
