Bus’s oil leak delayed hurling stars from making throw-in

A director of a Kerry bus firm was yesterday convicted in relation to an oil spill that was inadvertently a major factor in All-Ireland winners Clare’s first senior hurling win of the year over Cork.

The spill caused by diesel leaking from a Kennedy Coach on the main Limerick to Galway motorway on Feb 1 caused traffic chaos, resulting in five road accidents with one person injured.

The two-mile long slick at Ballymorris Cratloe shut the motorway and forced gardaí to close a 10km stretch of road resulting in massive tailbacks. In one of the stuck cars was a car with five senior Cork hurlers, Conor O’Sullivan, Daniel Kearney, Cian McCarthy, Adrian Mannix, and Stephen Moylan.

All were down to start in the Waterford Crystal Cup semi-final against the Banner and despite match organisers putting throw-in back from 7.45pm to 8.30pm, Cork boss Jimmy Barry Murphy had only 15 players at throw-in time.

The five eventually made it to Sixmilebridge with four coming on as substitutes but their efforts were not enough to stop Clare winning 0-20 to 2-11.

At Ennis District Court yesterday, Judge William Earley convicted Patrick Kennedy of Kennedy Coaches Ltd, Main St, Annascaul, Co Kerry, of having his coach in such a condition that it was a danger to the public.

Judge Earley convicted Mr Kennedy after Garda Brendan Condon said the coach was not in good overall condition prior to the incident because of a serious defect in relation to its fuel tank that would have rendered the vehicle dangerous to the public.

Garda Condon said that “this fracture did not occur suddenly and would have worsened over a long period of time”.

Judge Earley said that he accepts that Mr Kennedy “is a conscientious businessman and did his best to mitigate the difficulties that the defect in his coach caused”.

The judge said that he accepted there were substantial mitigating factors — the bus passed a safety test nine weeks prior to the incident.

The defect in the fuel tank was also subject of a recall by Mercedes Benz and Mr Kennedy said that he never received the letter informing him of the recall in Sept 2010.

Judge Earley fined Mr Kennedy €250.