Icecream van driver cleared of careless driving

An icecream van driver was cleared yesterday of careless driving in a case where it was alleged that he had knocked down a boy aged around six.

Barry Phelan, aged 37, of 9 Ard na Greine, Macroom, Co Cork, denied the charge.

“I put the handbrake on and I heard a thud in the back of my van. I thought one of them threw a stone at the van,” Mr Phelan said to his solicitor, Seán Cahill, at Cork District Court.

He said the boy was crying and his older brother said: “It is OK, my brother ran into the back of your van.” “The other kids were laughing at him, he was so silly what he had done,” said Mr Phelan. “I gave him a free ice cream.”

Mr Phelan said the other children, who had been playing football, were “hyper” and looking for free icecreams too, so he decided to leave the estate near Sarsfield’s Rd and go to another estate.

Judge Olann Kelleher, saying he had to give the defendant the benefit of the doubt, dismissed the charge against him, careless driving. However, he said: “I am appalled by his behaviour to the child afterwards.”

He asked: “Did you get his name and address and call over to his mother, see if he was OK afterwards?”

Mr Phelan said: “In hindsight, I should have.”