Cookstown dad hit speed of 112mph on way to Antrim Area Hospital where his wife had given birth
A dad who hit a speed of 112mph said he was on the way to hospital where his wife had given birth.
The 32-year-old was detected in a 70mph - the New Moneynick Road dual-carriageway near Toomebridge at 11am on Saturday, May 23 this year.
At Antrim Magistrates' Court, sitting in Ballymena, Callum Devine, of Westbury Way, Cookstown pleaded guilty to speeding.
A prosecutor said the defendant was at the wheel of an Audi Q5.
A defence solicitor said the the circumstances were "quite unique", adding the defendant had been driving for 15 years with "no previous incursions".
The defendant’s wife had a baby at Antrim Area Hospital and the following day she rang him and he was attempting to get to the hospital to assist her, it was "their first-born child".
He was in "a bit of a panic" and he made an overtaking manoeuvre which had been a "misjudgement" and a "one-off aberration".
The lawyer added: "It is perhaps a situation when we have our first child, we maybe don't think logically when you are worried about a baby for the first time".
The solicitor said the defendant "works in a construction business with his family. He works presently on a site which is a 50-minute drive".
District Judge Nigel Broderick said Devine was "still creating danger" by doing such a speed and he said people doing over 100mph often say they had an "urgent need to get somewhere".
He banned the defendant from driving for a month along with a £200 fine.
"He is lucky he is not being disqualified for longer," added Judge Broderick.