Drunk driving of a crowded tractor

February 1988

A man who used a tractor to drive four friends to a disco, and who then drank ‘eight or ten’ pints of Guinness while he was there, was later arrested as he tried to drive his friends home again, New Ross District Court heard last week.

[Name withheld] ended up being fined £150 and disqualified from driving for one year after being convicted of failing to provide a sample of blood or urine for testing when suspected of drunken driving.

Superintendent Gerry Moran told the court that defendant was stopped driving a tractor that also had four other men on board at 2.05 a.m. on 10th June last. When the door of the cab was opened, the Garda got a strong smell of intoxicating drink from defendant, who was bleary-eyed. He was also unsteady on his feet and the guard formed the opinion that he was unfit to drive.

In the Garda station, defendant first opted to give a sample of urine, but he failed to provide it. He was then given the opportunity to provide a blood sample instead, but he refused to do that.

His solicitor, Martin Lawlor, said that defendant and some friends had decided to go by tractor to a disco in New Ross that night. ‘A certain amount’ of alcohol, estimated by defendant to have been ‘eight or ten pints of stout’, was consumed, and defendant was apprehended by Gardai and brought to the station.

He was not in a position to explain why defendant first failed to pass urine, and then refused to provide blood. He added that his client regrets the incident, and that as defendant works in agricultural contracting, the loss of his licence would ‘ knock him out of action’ for a period.