Driver in bus tragedy found not guilty by court

The bus driver accused of dangerous driving causing death at Wellington Quay has been found not guilty by a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on the eve of the third anniversary of the tragedy.

Kenneth Henvey (aged 51), of Whitethorn Crescent, Palmerstown, had denied dangerous driving causing the deaths of two men and three women on February 21, 2004.

Mr Henvey's legal team read a statement on his behalf following the verdict in which he said that since the tragic event his thoughts had never been far from the victims and the families of those who lost their lives.

He said that as he struggled to understand the events of that day he prayed that all involved had the strength to move forward and rebuild their lives.

Mr Henvey thanked those who had supported him including his family, friends, colleagues, his legal team, the jury and members of the public.

The jury took slightly more than four hours to return the not guilty verdict and were thanked by Judge Michael White who described the case as tragic for everyone involved. He excused them from jury service for 15 years.

Mr Henvey's wife broke down in tears and rushed to her husband's side as Judge White told him he was discharged from the indictment.

Family members of those who died were present in court throughout the trial and left quickly following the verdict without speaking to reporters.

Judge White had told the jury that if it accepted what was urged upon them by Mr Henvey's side that the incident had been caused by a sudden malfunction in the bus engine which led to the vehicle going out of control or accepted that such a malfunction could have happened then they should acquit.

Judge White told the jury it did not have to establish how the accident took place but decide the guilt or innocence of Mr Henvey.

He had given the jury the option of finding Mr Henvey not guilty of dangerous driving causing death but guilty of the lesser offence of careless driving. The jury chose not to find him guilty of careless driving.

The verdict came of the 11th day of the trial in which the prosecution had called 52 witnesses including eyewitnesses, Dublin Bus employees and Volvo engineers.

The defence had called three witnesses including two Bus Éireann drivers who said they had experienced power surges on a bus in Waterford.

The jury heard that a number 66 bus had pulled in some distance from the kerb at Wellington Quay in front of Mr Henvey's parked bus. A crowd of up to 30 people moved forward to board the 66 bus when Mr Henvey's bus mounted the pavement and drove up the inside of the 66 hitting the people waiting to board it.

The jury heard that when the bus stopped Mr Henvey put his head in his hands and began sobbing saying "this can't be happening".

Five people died and were named as Kathleen Gilton (aged 69) of Newtown, Maynooth, Co Kildare; Ms Teresa Keatley (aged 43) of Sillogue Avenue, Ballymun; Ms Margaret Traynor (aged 59) of Tulip Court, Darndale; Kevin Garry (aged 43) of Riverdale, Leixlip, Co Kildare; and Vasyl Tyminskyy (aged 33) of Kew Park Avenue, Lucan, Co Dublin.

Judge White earlier described the trial as long, complicated and emotive. He told the jury it had heard of an everyday event of people shopping in Dublin city centre, of a bus pulling in and then tragedy striking.

Mr Henvey is a married father-of-three had been driving a bus for 13 years before the incident, and tested negative for drugs or alcohol.

The jury heard that he had been working overtime on his day off to pay for a holiday or his daughter.

Patrick McGrath BL prosecuting, told the jury in closing the case that the obvious explanation for the incident was that Mr Henvey put his foot on the accelerator of the bus rather than the brake.

He said there was no scientific basis and no evidence to support the theory put forward by the defence that the bus had experienced a power surge.

Patrick Gageby SC, defending, said that to convict the jury would have to go beyond reasonable doubt and find the incident was a result of pure driver error. He said that to do this the jury would have to accept the technical data which the prosecution said indicated there was no power surge.

During the trial it was revealed that technical information relied upon by the prosecution was completely inaccurate as the result of a mix up by a Swedish Volvo engineer and new data was presented to the jury.

Mr Gageby questioned why the new data had not been checked by independent experts for the prosecution rather than the company who made the engine.

He said there was "a bit of a stink off Volvo in either Sweden or Britain" and added that he was not particularly impressed by Irish Commercials, importers of Volvo, over this "debacle".

Judge White told the jury that it was entitled to act upon the information from Volvo but to be careful in drawing conclusions from it.

Mr Gageby said that a power surge would have resulted from a "classic intermittent fault" which came and went without leaving a sign it had occurred.