AA Blog

Well done to all our staff who participated in our Halloween fancy dress day on Friday.  Over €400 raised for Barnardos and lots of good fun had!

Irish motorists are strongly in support of the newly reduced drink drive limit says AA Ireland.  According to a nationally representative poll carried out by AA Ireland last year, over 80% of respondents said they were in favor of the drop in the legal drink drive limit from 80mg to 50mg. 

“50 mgs is the normal limit in most parts of Europe and indeed in most of the developed world.” Says Director of Policy Conor Faughnan. “Ireland has been something of an anomaly with our higher 80 mg limit, and this new 50 mg limit finally brings us into line.”

The AA has released shocking findings that show that 11% of second hand cars imported from the UK have had their mileage doctored. The practice is called clocking. The analysis is based on a survey of 5,430 registration numbers and vehicle records for cars imported from the UK in 2011.

The number of UK imports had been increasing year on year from 2000 to 2008 with 33,000 being brought in last year alone and 23,000 imported to the end of September this year. It now emerges that almost 1 in 10 of those cars has a false mileage.

Following Monday’s flash floods in Ulster and Leinster in particular, AA Rescue has been particularly busy in the Dublin and East coast areas with water damaged vehicles. The AA is now advising motorists whose vehicles have been partially or fully submerged in flood water to inspect their vehicles for signs of damage.

“On Monday evening we had numerous call outs to cars that had driven through flood water and stalled.” Says Noel Keogh, Head of AA Rescue. “Cars were also being abandoned on roads in Dublin,  Wicklow, Kildare and other counties. We were still dealing with the backlog by Tuesday morning, when we had a fresh surge of car breakdowns and cars refusing to start.

• Listen to AA Roadwatch bulletins for advice on flooded stretches of road.  Avoid badly affected routes if possible.
• Reduce your speed and double the distance between you and the car in front.
• If the steering becomes unresponsive due to surface water beneath your tyres ease off the accelerator until the car comes to a gradual halt.

AA Ireland reports that it is already seeing a stream of queries about the use and purchase of snow socks and snow chains despite it still only being October.  The AA also reports that a number of retailers it has spoken with say they are experiencing strong demand for snow socks this year following the challenging conditions of the last two winters.

“People are clearly worried about the coming Winter even though we have no way of knowing yet how bad it is going to be.” Says Noel Keogh, Head of AA Rescue. “A lot of people are enquiring about snow socks, which fit over a car tyre to provide extra grip, but in our experience a great many motorists are not clear on how to use them properly.”

Results of a new poll carried out by AA Motor Insurance released today show that plenty of motorists have committed an offence by allowing one or more of their compulsory certificates to expire: NCT, Car Tax or motor insurance.

Of the 15,300 people polled by AA Motor Insurance 33% admitted to driving around at some point  with an expired NCT disc, 33% without valid car tax, 4% with an expired driver’s license and 2% with an out of date motor insurance disc.  Despite the risk of penalty points, fines, mandatory court appearances and even disqualification from driving if convicted a lot of motorists have been willing to take a chance.

A litre of unleaded petrol now costs an average of 150.2 cents per litre, down 0.6 cents on the figure for September. Diesel prices rose by 0.7 cent to an average of 142.9 cents according to the latest survey of fuel prices from the AA.

“Its one step forward and one step back for the Irish motorist but overall our prices are as bad as ever.” Says Director of Policy Conor Faughnan. “In recent weeks we have seen oil prices for Brent Crude strengthen a bit but then we have also seen the Euro creep a little higher against the dollar. The net effect is almost no movement in prices on Irish forecourts.  2011 overall has been a year of high oil prices and sadly it does not appear to be getting any better.” 

Quick and easy access to AA Breakdown & Traffic Services plus more

Have you downloaded the new AA App to your iPhone yet? 

If you’ve got an iphone why not visit iTunes today and download our brand new AA App.

Easy access to AA Breakdown Service: The free AA app gives you quick and easy access to the AA Ireland Breakdown Service.  So if you break down, you can use the app to call the AA and let us know where you’ve broken down. You don’t need to be an AA member to use this essential motoring App.

Roadwatch: The  AA App will also allow you to access all the latest traffic hot spots to help you avoid those traffic jams, helping you to stay calm, cool and collected behind the wheel.   

RSA Press release:

This Saturday, 15^th October, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) will be holding the fifth ‘European Night Without Accident’ as part of ‘Irish Road Safety Week’. This initiative promotes responsible driving behaviour among young adults, and is being run in 220 nightclubs in 27 EU countries, on the same night.

It will take place in 6 counties in Ireland on Saturday 15th October. The locations are; Kells, Co. Meath, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, Castlebar, Co. Mayo, Waterford City, and Cork City.