Ombudsman to investigate Westport crash

Ombudsman to investigate Westport ‘biker’ crash


Motorcyclist taken to hospital after collision with Garda car

Áine Ryan

IT COULD have been a scene from Smokey and the Bandit or even Steve McQueen’s Bullitt but instead the screeching sirens and cop car chase was through the unusually quiet lunchtime streets of Westport last Friday.
In fact, a short time earlier, according to a stunned driver en route from Castlebar, two motorbikes had driven at speed, on the wrong side of the road, in his direction, one of them doing wheelies.
“At first I didn’t know what was coming at me. It was crazy and very dangerous. They had no regard for anyone else on the road,” The Mayo News source said.
He confirmed the incident occurred near the straight stretch of road at the Halfway House pub.
Then, the drama took another twist, when less than a half-hour later, at approximately 1.40pm, there was a collision between a marked garda car and a northern registered Kawasaki motorcycle at Carrabawn on the Leenane Road.
The motorcyclist was subsequently admitted to Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar with a broken leg while local garda chief, Supt Mick Murray reported the incident to the Garda Ombudsman Commission, as is his statutory duty under Section 102 of the Garda SíochΡna Act.
Supt Murray was reluctant to comment any further on the matter since it has been formally handed over to the Ombudsman’s office, who immediately initiated an investigation on Friday evening last.
However, The Mayo News understands that three gardaí involved in the chase in the marked car had stopped on the side of the Leenane Road when the motorbikes appeared on the scene again.
A spokesman for the Ombudsman has appealed for witnesses, or persons who may have information, to come forward and to phone the Witness Appeal Line at 1890 600 800.
In last week’s issue, The Mayo News also reported on how substantial damage was caused to a garda car in Newport after it was rammed twice at high speed while in pursuit of a vehicle whose occupants were suspected of stealing kegs of beer from the Hotel Newport.
Moreover, three Cork men were jailed last Summer as a result of a late-night, high-speed car chase, after they robbed Darby’s pub in Carrakennedy, attempted to also rob the Sheebeen pub, near Westport harbour, and later rammed a garda car during the dangerous pursuit.
The chase brought the pursuing garda car through Thornhill, Lecanvey and Louisburgh and ultimately to the townland of Devlin. Bizarrely, at one point during the hair-raising chase, the Cork men stopped their car – which was reaching speeds of 200km an hour – and reversed into the patrol car. They then got out and threw bottles of spirits at the garda car. 
They were finally apprehended in Devlin, with the aid of a local farmer, having abandoned the car.