Woman with fogged up car windows ‘didn’t know she knocked down cyclist’
Sinead King, aged 29, did not de-mist her car windows before setting out on her drive to work. She accepted that she could not see out properly and later told gardaí she had no idea she had knocked someone over.
She said she noticed four children playing on one side of the road and then heard a loud bang. She noticed her windscreen was broken and assumed her former partner, who she had difficulties with in the past, had attacked her car.
King drove on leaving Peter Vaughan on the side of the road with his leg broken in three places, a broken eye socket, and mild brain damage.
King, of Riverside, Clondalkin, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing serious harm on Monastery Rd, Clondalkin on Oct 16, 2010. She had one previous conviction for failing to give a breath sample and was banned from driving for four years in Dec 2010.
Garda Ruth Brett told Pieter Le Vert BL, prosecuting, that King arrived at a Garda station four hours after the accident to report the damage done to her car. When the garda examined the vehicle she realised it was the one that had been involved in the accident and cautioned King.
King maintained that she had no idea that she had knocked anyone down.
Gda Brett agreed with Paul Comiskey O’Keefe BL, defending, that there was no indication that King had been driving at excessive speeds.
Judge Patrick McCartan told King she had made a dreadful mistake because she did not have the patience to properly defog her car windows.
Judge McCartan had read documents outlining King’s previous relationship with the father of her two boys and accepted that if given a chance he probably would have attacked King’s car.
King was also banned from driving for 10 years.
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