Woman drove while husband sat in boot and led horse

A woman has been convicted after she was caught driving with her husband in the car boot, leading a horse.

Heather Josiah, aged 29, of Ardrew Court, Athy, pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention before Judge Desmond Zaidan, who was so astounded by the evidence he asked Insp Jim Doyle to repeat it.

At Athy District Court, the judge asked “is that for real?” and said the evidence sounded like a case from 1890 rather than 2012.

Gardaí found Josiah at the head of a long stream of slow-moving traffic on Farrington Rd, Athy, at 4.30pm on Mar 20 last year, and were surprised to see her husband sitting in the open boot of the green Peugeot 406, leading a horse on a rope.

Insp Doyle said other drivers were understanding, happy people on the day and nobody blew a horn to hurry up the traffic.

He said a very resourceful garda on the scene managed to bring the horse to the Josiah family home, which was not far away.

Josiah was also before the court for failing to have two children restrained in the car on another date in Athy.

A 2-year-old sat on Josiah’s husband’s knee in the front seat and the other was behind the passenger seat.

Solicitor Matthew Byrne said Josiah’s husband, who was not named in court, cannot read or write and did not recognise the fixed charge fines when they came in the post and did not pass them on to his wife, so she had not been able to pay them.

He said the mother of four, who is expecting her fifth child, was the only driver in the family while her husband was off the road, and said the couple, who are not working, now have a people carrier to carry their children safely.

He admitted that the case was very unusual, but that he had seen similar situations growing up in Dublin.

However, Judge Zaidan said the scenes were akin to what Mr Byrne’s great grandfather might have observed.

Questioned by the judge, Ms Josiah said the horse was currently in a field and was not tied to a car anywhere.

Heather Josiah, who has three previous road traffic convictions, also said she appreciated the importance of children wearing their seatbelt.

While the court was initially amused by the case, the judge said that had any of the drivers honked their car horn, the horse could have gone out of control.

The situation could have “gone horribly wrong”, he said, convicting Josiah of driving without due care and attention and of carrying and unrestrained child, and imposing fines totalling €600.