Judge: Youths trying to out-speed the gardaí

Young drivers are playing high-speed car computer games and then thinking they can out-speed gardaí, a judge has warned.

Judge Paul Kelly was speaking as he jailed a 22-year-old Donegal man who drove at gardaí before trying to escape.

Daryl Kelly appeared before Letterkenny District Court charged with a series of motoring offences.

Kelly did a handbrake turn in front of gardaí before driving at them in his Honda.

Gardaí had to take evasive action as Kelly and three passengers drove at them on December 7, 2013.

Kelly travelled onto the Lifford Road, Castlefin, and was racing at speeds of 90 kilometres per hour in a 50-kilometre-per-hour zone.

Gardaí activated their siren and their flashing lights but Kelly, of 32 Beechwood grove in Lifford, kept driving.

Gardaí said eventually the car mounted a footpath and crashed into a wall at the Coneyburrow Road in Lifford.

The accused still tried to flee but the driver’s door was jammed and gardaí caught him.

He resisted arrest and gardaí had to use their incapacitating spray on him as they arrested him.

Judge Paul Kelly said he had noticed an increase in the number of young men coming before his court on such offences.

He said “There seems to have been an increase in the number of such offences — young men under the influence and sometimes watching too many movies and computer games thinking they can escape gardaí and they put everyone else in considerable danger. This case only came to a halt after three miles and only because this man lost control and hit a wall.”

The car was not insured and did not have a valid NCT cert. Kelly was also over the drink-driving limit when taken to be processed at Milford Garda station.

Kelly was jailed for four months for dangerous driving at Lifford Road, Castlefin and also disqualified from driving for three years.

He was also fined €200 for having no insurance and a further €200 for section 4.