Man accused of dangerous driving causing death goes on trial

A Latvian man has gone on trial accused of dangerous driving causing the death of an elderly woman in a car accident between Portmarnock and Malahide last year.

Jevgeijs Aleksejevs (aged 33), of Sweetmans Farm, Skerries Road, Lusk has pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of Mrs Elizabeth Gallagher on the Coast Road between Portmarnock and Malahide on January 3, 2007.

Prosecution counsel, Ms Úna Ní Raifeartaigh BL, told the jury in her opening address at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, that the accident took place on a stretch of road following the coast which "twists and turns and goes up and down little hills."

She said Mr Aleksejevs was driving north in a blue Mitsubishi Gallant between 9.30 am and 9.45am behind a red Citron driven by another man.

She said it was the prosecution's case that Mr Aleksejevs started to overtake the accelerating Citron and continued overtaking as he approached a bend when it was unsafe to do so, colliding with Mrs Gallagher's oncoming car.

Ms Ní Raifeartaigh read out a memo of the accused's garda interview following the collision where he stated through an interpreter that the car he was trying to overtake increased its speed and that the accident happened because of his car's brakes and the slippery road surface.

The father-of-two claimed he had to speed up to get around the red car because he was on the wrong side of the road and wouldn't make it back to the other side before the bend if he didn't accelerate.

He told gardaí he helped get Mrs Gallagher out of her car and held her head when she briefly became conscious.

A pedestrian walking her friend's dog southbound on the road that morning told Ms Ní Raifeartaigh she thought the blue car was overtaking the red car "a bit late" coming up to the bend.

The witness said she turned around to see the cars collide and watched as a motorist travelling behind the overtaking vehicles got out to first check on the accused in his Mitzubishi, before taking Mrs Gallagher out of her Fiat Panda and laying her on the grass embankment near a pathway four feet below the road where her car came to rest.

The witness added that she went to help the motorist and thought Mrs Gallagher was still breathing while she covered her with a jacket, held her hand and spoke to her before emergency services arrived at the scene.

The motorist travelling behind the Mitzubishi and Citron described the accused's manoeuvre to overtake as "quite an erratic move straight out (onto the road)" and "a quickly executed movement".

He said he couldn't recall seeing the Mitzubishi indicate as it pulled out into the other lane and saw a "brief flash of red" collide with it at the bend before this oncoming vehicle rolled down the embankment.

A motorist travelling behind Mrs Gallagher's red Fiat Panda described it "ambling along relatively slowly" before it "spun once and went shooting backwards until it ended up upside down on the path" when it collided with another car.

He said he noticed one of the Mitzubishi's wheels were buckled as it came to a gradual halt on the road.

The trial continues before Judge Martin Nolan and a jury of seven men and five women.