Gardaí had to try to block the road to stop chase

Gardaí had to try to block the road to stop chase


Gardaí trying to stop a dangerous driver who refused to pull over, tried and failed to use one of their cars to block the road to bring a chase to a halt.
James Kelly (43) of Faheens, Midfield, Swinford pleaded guilty to five counts of dangerous driving and one count of driving without a driving license. A charge of failing or refusing to give a a sample for alcohol analysis was withdrawn by the prosecution. Defending solicitor Cathy McDarby told the court that the prosecution may have ‘been in difficulty’ with aspects of that charge.
Garda John Boyle told Castlebar District Court on Wednesday last that at 9.30pm on April 9, 2012 he received a report that a camper van was driving dangerously near the Corrib Oil filling station on the Castlebar Road in Westport.
Garda Boyle and Garda Mark Irwin went in that direction and encountered the camper van at Kilbree, Westport. Garda Boyle said the van swerved left and right and the gardaí activated their lights. The van refused to stop and continued at 60 miles per hour. Garda Boyle said it was a ‘wet, windy and dark’ night and the road was busy. Oncoming traffic had to ‘take action’ and pull into the margins to avoid a collision with the camper van which was crossing over from one side of the road to another.

Road block
Garda Boyle contacted Castlebar Garda Station and one of their patrols came to assist. Garda SeΡn Ryan attempted to block the road with his patrol car at Cloonkeen, Castlebar but the camper van didn’t stop and Garda Ryan had to reverse out of the way to avoid a collision. At this stage Garda Irwin overtook the camper van, stopped the camper van’s attempt to overtake him and slowed down to such a pace as to bring the camper van to a halt.
Garda Boyle said that, upon speaking to James Kelly, ‘he was obviously under the influence of an intoxicant’. The court heard that Kelly had five previous road traffic convictions, including one for failing to give an alcohol sample in 1999.
Defending solicitor Cathy McDarby said that her client is an unemployed carpenter and he had been scuba diving in Killary Harbour that day. The court heard that Kelly had ‘gone down too quickly’ and perforated his eardrum as a result. She told the court that he also went for ‘three pints’ afterwards but, feeling unwell, took the ‘very dangerous idea to drive to hospital in Castlebar’.
Ms McDarby said that Kelly claims he was ‘looking for somewhere to pull in’ when gardaí were in pursuit and that his ear injury ‘may have contributed’. He said he didn’t see the garda car parked on the road.

‘Exceptionally dangerous’
Judge Mary Devins said the nature of the driving was ‘exceptionally dangerous’ and said Kelly was lucky he wasn’t before the court charged with dangerous driving causing death or serious injury.
She adjourned the matter to June 19 for a community service assessment. If found suitable, Kelly will be sentenced to 150 hours community service in lieu of three months in prison. He was disqualified from driving for two years and fined a total of €575.