‘A particularly bad piece of driving’

Bertie Cardwell, a 55-year-old whose address was listed on court papers as Ballynaferne Road, Anaclone in Banbridge, County Down, crashed into the traffic island while he was reaching across the cabin for a bottle of juice, Limavady Magistrates’ Court has heard.

A public prosecution service solicitor told the court that police received a report at around 2.30am on November 14, 2013 of a collision with a traffic island in Greysteel. Upon arriving at the scene, police found a “substantial amount of debris” strewn across the road and that the traffic island had been knocked over.

The court also heard that a high visibility police vehicle later stopped a blue lorry with a damaged headlight some distance from the scene of the collision. The windscreen of the vehicle was “completely shattered” and there were other numerous signs of damage to the lorry including a missing front grill and bumper. The defendant confirmed to officers he had been travelling from a meat processing plant near Strathfoyle to a location in Coleraine.

The court was also told that the defendant claimed to have collided with the traffic island as he reached across the cabin for a bottle of juice.

A defence solicitor said that the defendant was “frightened” in case the bottle would become lodged under a pedal. The defence solicitor added that Cardwell had indeed stopped the lorry and looked back but could not see any sign of damage to the traffic island, and that he believed he had sufficient visibility through the damaged windscreen to continue driving.

Sentencing, District Judge Liam McNally noted that this was a “particularly bad piece of driving.” He said that Cardwell had “alos endangered other people by driving with a broken windscreen” and that he had two previous convictions for dangerous driving. The defendant was fined £200 and a further £100 for each of the four charges.