Driver had a blackout before colliding with car

A man who was driving a van that collided with a telephone pole and another car at Cartron Hill had been injured in a diving accident a shortime previously, Sligo District Court. When interviewed by gardaí he told them he had a blackout before the collision.

Thomas Quinn (39) with an address at Cartron Bay, Sligo, was before the court charged with dangerous driving at Cartron Hill on June 26 th 2017. He was also charged with not having insurance. Inspector Donal Sweeney told the court gardaí were called to the scene at 8:45pm at the junction with the N4 and Cartron Hill where there had been a collision. A vehicle had collided with another vehicle and a traffic pole and had driven away.

When gardaí arrived there was a Citroen C4 with extensive damage to the driver’s side and the telephone pole had been knocked.

The driver of the car told them he had driven from the N4 onto Cartron Hill heading towards Rosses Point when a white van came toward him the wrong way on the slip road and struck his car. He suffered a minor injury to his forehead. The driver of the van failed to stop, the court heard. Inspector Sweeney said the driver, Mr Quinn, was located 15 minutes later and was interviewed by gardaí. He told them that he had some kind of blackout.

Defending solicitor Mr Gerard McGovern told Judge Kevin Kilrane his client was a 39-year-old father of two who was a plumber by trade and a hardworking man who never came to the notice of gardaí before. He had been in Tenerife sometime before the accident and had a diving incident where he hit concrete and suffered very serious injuries to his neck and shoulder.

Mr McGovern said his client was lucky not to have been paralysed as a result. He said Mr Quinn found it extremely difficult to recover and on the day in question the only thing he could say was that he hit the pole and subsequently collided with the car. He had very little recollection of it.

Mr MrGovern said that regarding the insurance, his client ran into difficulty being laid up after the diving accident and hadn’t been working. He had bought a vehicle with an English registration but as it wasn’t imported correctly his insurance provider cancelled the insurance. Mr McGovern said he had no previous convictions and had worked hard all his life. Inspector Sweeney said when Mr Quinn was being interviewed by gardaí he told them about the diving accident.

The judge inquired how heavy an impact it was and Inspector Sweeney handed in pictures of the car to the court.

Mr McGovern said the person in the car had a cut to his head. Judge Kilrane said he was going to think about it for a week and adjourned until this Thursday to Sligo District Court.