Jail for young man who crashed into Garda car after high-speed chase in Fermoy

The accused, who had been disqualified from driving previously, also got a five-year driving ban

The court heard that Krzysztof Karpinski failed to stop for gardaí and drove at 100 kilometres per hour in a 50 zone. File photo

A young man’s escapade of high-speed dangerous driving in an Audi A4 on country roads around Fermoy saw him jailed for two years and banned from driving for five years yesterday.

Detective Garda Martin Lawton said the series of incidents occurred after 9.30pm on June 23 last year in the Duntahane area of Fermoy, County Cork.

Krzysztof Karpinski of The Granary, Glanworth, County Cork, pleaded guilty to several charges, the most serious being one of endangerment whereby he created a risk of death or serious injury at Coolnakila, Fermoy.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin noted that the accused had been disqualified from driving previously but that disqualification orders meant nothing to him.

“There was a four-year disqualification on him at the time but he was driving away merrily. His reaction when he saw the guard was in line with this. He took off driving dangerously – only one thing in mind, to get away and he failed to do that.

“At the time he was fuelled with drugs and obviously a danger to other road users,” Judge Ó Donnabháin said.

It all started when he failed to stop for gardaí who indicated for him to do so by activating the blue light on their garda vehicle.

“He failed to stop for the blue lights and drove at 100 kilometres per hour in a 50 zone. 

He then drove at 100 kph in an 80 zone veering over a continuous white line on numerous occasions.

“There were several other road users and he began to overtake them on the continuous white line in an unsafe manner. It was all country roads,” Garda Lawton said.

The defendant’s car collided with an unmarked garda car in which Det. Garda Denis Ryan was travelling. At that stage, Karpinski got out of his Audi A4 and fled the scene. He was later located close to Glanworth.

€2,600 worth of damage was done to the garda vehicle.

Brian Leahy defence barrister said the defendant ultimately pleaded guilty to all the charges against him, including endangerment and dangerous driving.