Left‘ miles’of dieselonN17

A 41 year old truck driver who left a trail of destruction behind him when he ripped one of his diesel tanks off on the N17 has “just about” held on to his licence.

Trevor Donnell of Lisnacreaght Road, Omagh appeared before Judge Kevin Kilrane at Tubbercurry District Court last Wednesday.

He had pleaded at a previous court hearing to dangerous driving, failing to stop and failing to report damaging Mary Gilligan’s hedge on the N17 at Carrowwilkin, Tubbercurry on May 9th 2015.

Defence solicitor Ms Nicole Walsh said her client had ¤ 3,000 in court. “It was an error of judgement on his part. He does regret it,” she said.

“The road was very narrow. He reached over to get a bottle of water and at that moment the lorry swerved,” she told the court.

The court heard the incident happened just before 7am and Donnell had driven all the way from Kerry.

Judge Kilrane said Donnell had “effectively ripped off a diesel tank on his lorry and left a few miles of diesel on the road.”

“This man was after driving from Kerry. It’s my belief he fell asleep. We expect absolute perfection from a lorry driver with the care of their lorries. He drove on for many miles, leaving a trail of diesel,” he said.

“He could have phoned the Gardaí but he wanted to get across the border as quick as he could,” said the judge.

“He didn’t realise the extent of his damage. He has daughters up North and only has custody at the weekend and was rushing to get there. He co- operated fully and came down here today of his own accord,” said Ms Walsh.

Judge Kilrane said he found that “hard to accept”: “Why didn’t he phone the emergency services? Why did he wait til he was across the border?”

Inspector Padraig Burke told the court that one of Donnell’s diesel tanks was ripped off in the incident and was left on the main road.

“There was a substantial oil spill along the road,” added in Inspector.

Judge Kilrane convicted and fined Donnell ¤ 3,000 and said there was “just about” no disqualification.”