Disqualified ‘stoned’ driver led gardaí on chase

A young mother disqualified from driving failed to stop at a Garda checkpoint and was pursued by a patrol car for 45 minutes from West Cork to Cork City while she was “stoned” from cannabis.

In what Judge James McNulty said was a callous disregard for the lives of gardaí and other road users, 20-year-old Rachel O’Donovan passed through roundabouts on the wrong side, overtook cars at high speed, drove through red lights, drove on the wrong side of the road and did a handbrake turn at Dennehy’s Cross in Cork City in a determined attempt to escape gardaí.