Case adjourned so point of law can be examined
MOTORIST FACING DRINK DRIVING AND DANGEROUS DRIVING CHARGES
A DRINK driving case has been adjourned as the defendant’s barrister requested time to look into a point of law.
Joe Cullen (41), 11 Bayview Grange, Wicklow, appeared in Bray District Court on Thursday, February 13.
He was accused of having 203 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood in his system.
He was also accused of dangerous driving, but that matter was reduced by the judge to careless driving.
The case centred around a single vehicle collision involving the defendant’s van, which occurred on the Rathdrum to Glenealy Road on February 2, 2019.
Garda Nicola Ryan told the court that she was called to the scene that night between midnight and 12.30 a.m. and Cullen was there. The vehicle had collided with the ditch, the windscreen was smashed and there were items scattered on the road. He was disoriented and he seemed to be looking for items, she said.
Another witness said that she saw a van weaving into the middle of the road and driving ahead, then a few minutes later she came across the accident.
Garda Ryan spoke to Cullen in the ambulance at the scene of the crash. She said that he told her he had been working all day and was driving from Glenealy to Wicklow. He failed a breath test.
There was damage to 25 metres of trees at the roadside. The van was over the centre line and blocking the road. The front tyre had deflated and the air bags had expanded.
Garda Ryan said that Cullen was complaining of pains in his back and was taken to hospital. She also went to the hospital. He walked out of the ambulance unaided at 1.52 a.m.
At the hospital, Garda Ryan said that she sought permission from a Dr Fitzpatrick, whom she said was the doctor in charge, for a doctor to take a sample of blood. She said that permission was given.
Barrister Justin McQuaid said that the legislation requires that permission must be given by a ‘treating doctor’. He said that Garda Ryan was not in a position to say whether Dr Fitzpatrick was the treating doctor.
‘What is the doctor in charge of? He might be in charge of admissions, or junior staff, we don’t know’, said the barrister.
Mr McQuaid said that in the matter of the alleged dangerous driving, the prosecution had not proved the time of driving, which he said they must under the legislation. He also said that the van which was seen by a witness weaving in the road had not been proven to be the same van which was crashed further along the road.
Mr McQuaid said that to infer they were the same vehicle would be to engage in speculation.
‘Collision with a ditch is not evidence of dangerous driving,’ he said.
Judge David Kennedy agreed and reduced the charge, convicting Cullen of careless driving.
However, he was inclined to refuse the drink driving application regarding the status of the doctor at the hospital.
‘I have to be happy beyond all reasonable doubt that the gardaí have performed their statutory duty to the best of their ability,’ said Judge Kennedy.
‘It was 1 in the morning in A&E,’ he said. ‘Gardaí sought the permission of a doctor in charge.’
He said that the defendant may not yet have been seen by any doctor, he may have gone through triage. Mr McQuaid said again that the law requires a treating doctor.
‘You can take this up in another court if you want to Mr McQuaid,’ said Judge Kennedy. ‘I go back again to the business of A&E on a weekend night. Trying to exact who you want is an impossible task. He was a doctor entitled to give leave in the absence of a treating doctor, these are all treating doctor.’
Mr McQuaid argued that there had not been any evidence of that.
He asked Judge Kennedy for time to look into the matter to see if it had been determined already in another court and the case was adjourned to February 27.