Garda conference to discuss threat from dangerous drivers

THE threat to gardaí posed by dangerous driving, including joyriding, is to feature prominently at the annual conference of the country’s largest Garda staff association.

With the death of Garda Robert McCallion still fresh in the minds of gardaí, brought to the fore again last February with the sentencing of a teenager in connection with his death, gardaí are eager to increase the safety of members.

Garda McCallion, aged 29, died on April 7 2009 after he was struck by a car while on duty in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, almost two weeks earlier.

Jamie McGrenaghan, 19, who was trying to flee a garda roadblock at the time, was jailed for six years after being found guilty of dangerous driving causing death.

The jury, to the dismay of the garda’s family and colleagues, earlier found the teenager not guilty of manslaughter.

There was public debate after Judge John O’Hagan , directed the jury to coldly deliberate their verdict and ignore that Robbie McCallion was a garda.

Both Fine Gael and Labour said at the time that a garda on duty should have special status and this should be protected under the law.

In a statement after the sentencing, the Garda Representative Association (GRA) said the laws were “out of balance” and “tipped in favour” of criminal behaviour.

GRA general secretary PJ Stone said: “Garda Robbie McCallion was performing his sworn duty on behalf of the Irish people when he was killed by a criminal attempting to flee the law.”

He said the law should be changed to protect gardaí, who, he said, only had “a uniform, a baton and an incapacitant spray”.

In a number of linked motions at the GRA annual conference in Westport tomorrow and Wednesday, gardaí from the Donegal division is demanding that “out-of-the-car safety training is provided for every member of the force”.

The same branch is calling for a number of reforms regarding so-called stinger devices, which are used to halt cars fleeing gardaí.

The branch wants the current restrictions on the deployment of stinger vehicle devices to be reviewed. They also want every vehicle to be equipped with a stinger device and for all members to be fully trained in using them. The same branch is also calling for every patrol car to be equipped with a digital camera and satellite navigation unit.

Their colleagues in the Kerry branch are demanding that “there be no more high speed pursuits” by gardaí driving official vehicles until the regulations for the pursuit of offending vehicles are changed.

Gardaí in Tipperary, Dublin East and Kilkenny/Carlow have condemned the Government’s failure to provide funds for the maintenance of the Garda fleet to agreed standards.