Gardaí have seized six cars in Clare, believed to have been modified to an extent that they posed a danger to the driver and other road users.
As part of Operation Curb, Gardaí from the Roads Policing Unit carried out the operation from 8pm last Friday night to 3am on Saturday morning.
Operation CURB, which stands for Changing Your Road Behaviour, aims to detect and educate road users on road safety and the dangers of modifying cars over the legal limit.
Over the course of seven hours last Friday night, six cars were seized, under either Section 20 of the Road Traffic Act or Section 41 of the Road Traffic Act.
A Garda public service vehicle inspector examined the cars and found three to be dangerously defective.
One of those had its engine replaced by another. The modification did not allow a battery to be stored with the engine compartment and was ‘relocated’ to the boot area where it was found to be held insufficiently with cable ties.
Gardaí say this was an extremely dangerous situation, as the battery could start a fire or leak acid if disturbed.
As a result of this modification, the driver was also not insured as he had failed to inform his insurer of the modifications that were made.
An examination another car found that the airbag malfunction lamp was permanently switched off, and the suspension was modified so low that the car under carriage was dragging on road surface with the wheels trapping themselves on the body structure. This would render the vehicle unsafe on most road networks.
Other modifications made that rendered the cars dangerous to drive include:
-Handbrake not working
-Airbags not effective
-Lowered suspensions that rendered the vehicle dangerous to drive
-Engine leaking oil to such an extent that it could not be driven following inspection
-Tyres wider that those specified for the car. These tyres are capable of throwing debris into the path of other vehicles and the debris is not caught by the flaps.
-One car was found to have a modified (second) hand-brake. This would allow for the vehicle to ‘drift’ – an action deemed dangerous outside of controlled circumstances. The introduction of this modification interfered with the normal safe running of the car.
The other three modified cars detained for inspection were found not to have been in breach of any legislation.
The drivers of these vehicles were commended for their efforts in ensuring their car remained road worthy and legal.
