Case against driver involved in bridge collapse adjourned

A CASE against the driver of a lorryload of pigs involved in a bridge collapse in north Kerry earlier this year was again adjourned at Listowel District Court, yesterday.

David Patterson, aged 48, of Screeby Road, Fivemiletown, Co Tyrone, was charged with driving a vehicle in a manner including speed, and having regard to the circumstances of the case, that was dangerous to the public, at Ballinagar, Lixnaw, on February 1 last.

He was charged shortly after the 30-metre, pontoon structure collapsed into a tidal river in Kerry.

At yesterday’s court sitting, Supt John Riordan, Listowel, said Pat Mann, solicitor for the defendant, had offered a certain course of action and it had to be forwarded to the DPP for consideration.

The DPP had come back to say the charge before the court stood and the superintendent asked that the matter be adjourned.

Judge Mary O’Halloran remanded Patterson on continuing bail to the same court, on January 10 next, for disposal of the case on that date.

Mr Mann said his client had travelled again from the North and was in court yesterday.

The metal bridge over the River Brick buckled in the middle as an articulated lorry carrying more than 200 pigs collected from local farms passed over it.

The vehicle’s rear end was submerged in the water and 50 of the pigs drowned, or were suffocated. A woman driving a car behind the truck had a lucky escape.

Most of the pigs were rescued in a large-scale operation involving Kerry County Council staff, gardaí, coast guard, Department of Agriculture inspectors, the ISPCA, fire services and a 200-tonne crane.

The bridge had been erected about 15 years earlier and local Fine Gael TD, Jimmy Deenihan, called for a more permanent structure to be put in place by the council.

A 12-tonne weight limit applied to the bridge.