Cases of fatal and serious road injuries adjourned as Supreme Court considers its decision on legal issues

Nine cases under the Road Traffic Act involving fatalities and serious injury were adjourned without fixing a date at the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee because a decision is awaited from the Supreme Court on legal issues, the court was told.

The cases were on the list for the new term which is beginning in February in Tralee, but have now been put back to the call over list for April.

The trials involve dangerous driving causing death, dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm, and careless driving causing death.

Some of the fatalities and injuries go back to 2013.

At the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee on Monday, Judge Thomas E O’Donnell said he wanted it noted that he was very conscious of the stress for all parties, but there was nothing he could do “until we have a definitive decision from the Supreme Court on the legal issue”.

Some of the cases in Tralee were sent forward from the District Courts in the first and second quarters of 2014.

The cases were adjourned until the relatively new indictable offence of careless driving causing death, section 52 of the Road Traffic Act which was brought in in 2011, is clarified following a decision of the Court of Appeal last year which allowed an appeal against conviction at Naas Circuit Criminal Court of a 70-year -old driver who was convicted of careless driving causing the death of another man who had been on traffic duty at roadworks in Co Kildare.

The jury in Naas was told the offence was one of strict liability, but the man’s legal team argued successfully at the Court of Appeal that Mens Rae or intention was an element and should have been canvassed in the Circuit Court judge’s address to the jury.

In December 2015, the Court of Appeal held that in order for a conviction of careless driving causing death, a jury would have to be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that there had been intention or reckless behaviour in the manner of the accused’s driving.

In June, the DPP was allowed by the Court of Appeal to bring the matter to the Supreme Court.

Judge O’Donnell told the court in Tralee he was “very, very conscious of the stress on all sides”.

Legal practitioners at the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee on Monday said the question was central also to decisions on the more serious Section 53, dangerous driving causing death, charge under the Road Traffic Act as juries sometimes brought in a verdict of the lesser conviction of careless driving.

Those convictions would also be in doubt if the cases went ahead.

It is expected that further cases will be adjourned until the Supreme Court ruling.