Judge tells young dangerous driver - "You have run out of road"
A Kerrykeel man was yesterday imprisoned for 22 months and disqualifed from driving for 25 years for a plethora of dangerous driving offences.
Kevin Dunleavy (24) of Meentagh Glenvar, Kerrykeel pleaded guilty to eight counts of dangerous driving which occurred in July and August of this year when he appeared at yesterday’s sitting of Letterkenny District Court.
Judge Seamus Hughes said Dunleavy had the “most auspicious number of previous convictions he had ever seen before him.” He added that Donegal was notorious for young people and their dangerous driving and asked Dunleavey to step into the witness box. “I would like to hear from the author of his own misfortune,” he said.
The Judge called Dunleavy’s record “appalling” and outlining the charges before the court said: “there you go, but for the grace of God, that you didn’t kill someone, a family in a car.”
He told the young father of two that he had “run out of road,” adding “you started out on a life of crime at 16 years of age and despite the fact that you have been in various courts you have learnt nothing.”
Garda Mark Gannon told the court that he observed the defendant driving a red Toyota Corolla in Carrigart on July 1st last. Dunleavy drove past him in the opposite direction, he continued on over a narrow bridge and took off at speed towards Milford and across the New Bridge and into Fanad.
Garda turned on the siren and pursued Dunleavy who was travelling at 120 k/p/h at times in an 80 k/p/h zone. The court heard how the garda observed sparks rising from the bottom of the car on rough roads. At Kindrum, Fanad, Dunleavey took two turns on the wrong side of the road and later failed to stop at a stop sign. Garda pursued the defendant across eight townlands before stopping the pursuit, deeming it too dangerous.
Dunleavey told garda two days later that he would be “pleading not guilty all the way.”
On August 12th last garda came across the car again in Glenvar. The defendant took off breaking the speed limit and taking bends at speed on the wrong side of the road. Garda Gannon said he observed Dunleavy approach a Y junction where he took a sharp handbrake turn, skidding onto the other side of the road towards Rathmullan.
Bail was fixed at €1,000 cash. The Judge said that if he could have sentenced him to ten years he would have. “I am not going to tolerate young men driving around like this, they could end the lives of other people. If I could have given you more I would have.”
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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