€100 fine for driver who said he saved 46 lives

A bus driver who claimed he saved the lives of 46 children by breaking the speed limit has been fined €100.

With 46 schoolchildren on board, gardaí operating speed checks detected the bus travelling at 69km/h in a 50km/h zone at 9.05am on March 27 last year.

Denis Doherty, of Gaddyduff, Clonmany, Co Donegal, had been charged with speeding at Tullyarvan, Buncrana, when he appeared at the district court.

The court heard that Garda Colm Mooney was operating a speed checkpoint at the time.

Doherty, aged 59, denied the offence, saying he was forced into breaking the speed limit to ensure children, either in his bus or in the cars behind him, were not injured.

He previously told the court in Buncrana he overtook a slow moving tractor but, when he did, a number of other cars followed suit.

Had he not sped up, there would not have been enough space for the rest of the cars to get in behind him, he said, claiming there “could have been a pile up” if he had not taken the action he did.

Ray Lannon, defending, said his client took fair, reasonable, and necessary action to prevent a “clear threat of tragedy”.

However, after taking time to review the case and study case law which was handed in by Mr Lannon, Judge Paul Kelly found Doherty had a case to meet.

The judge said he could not accept Doherty had no other choice but to break the speed limit.

He noted Garda Insp Michael Harrison’s suggestions there were several actions Doherty could have take to avoid any likely accident occurring.

The inspector had said he was “flabbergasted” at the bus driver’s account of events. “I’ve never heard anything like it before,” he told a previous sitting.

“You’re telling me that you broke the speed limit by 20km to ensure the safety of children?

“Are you being serious? You had no idea what speed you were doing and you accelerated the vehicle you were driving.

“You could’ve slowed down after you overtook the vehicle and pulled in and let the other cars pass, but you accelerated.”

Doherty had responded: “I’m a professional driver, my job is to ensure the safety of the children. If I hadn’t sped up to let the other vehicles pull in behind me safely, then there would’ve been a huge pile-up and a serious accident.

“That’s my job, I ensured their safety and I had to take that action in order to avoid an accident.”

Insp Harrison said: “You hadn’t a notion what speed you were doing and you’re not responsible for the vehicles behind you.

“You broke the speed limit, yet you stand here claiming it was to save lives — how can you justify your actions when you had schoolchildren on your bus? It was reckless, you broke the law.”

Judge Kelly said yesterday he agreed with what Insp Harrison had pointed out. “For this defence to succeed, there must be nothing else that could have been done to avoid an accident but increase your speed, but as Insp Harrison pointed out, Mr Doherty could have maintained his 50km/h speed and let the cars behind deal with their own situation.

“Or he could have pulled into the side to let them pass or the van coming in the opposite direction could have taken evasive action.

“Therefore, I am not convinced that Mr Doherty had no other choice on the day.”

The judge praised Mr Lannon for an “eloquent and strenuous” defence, but said he was rejecting the defence application.