Dangerous Driving charge

Verbatim25

My friend has been summonsed to the District court to face a Dangerous driving charge on March 25th....First offence ever...and he is really worried he will be put off the road...He's not working at the moment like a lot of folk but has a job guarenteed for the Summer...thing is he will need his drivers licence or he wont be able to do the summer job....He was having a bad day on the way home from work with me as passenger last october when a truck pulled out from a junction in front of him..Instead of doing the right thing and slowing down for him...He overtook the truck and there were cars on the opposite lane coming towards us...this was witnessed by 2 guardai and they pulled him over read him the riot act and told him it was dangerous driving....no collision occured and nobody was injured.....How do you see this one panning out? myself,himself and a few others are thinking of getting a work visa to go to Australia for a year so he could possibly avoid the consequences of a ban then

tommy21

Verbatim25 wrote: »

My friend has been summonsed to the District court to face a Dangerous driving charge on March 25th....First offence ever...and he is really worried he will be put off the road...He's not working at the moment like a lot of folk but has a job guarenteed for the Summer...thing is he will need his drivers licence or he wont be able to do the summer job....He was having a bad day on the way home from work with me as passenger last october when a truck pulled out from a junction in front of him..Instead of doing the right thing and slowing down for him...He overtook the truck and there were cars on the opposite lane coming towards us...this was witnessed by 2 guardai and they pulled him over read him the riot act and told him it was dangerous driving....no collision occured and nobody was injured.....How do you see this one panning out? myself,himself and a few others are thinking of getting a work visa to go to Australia for a year so he could possibly avoid the consequences of a ban then

2 Guards giving evidence against him after directly observing what he did will not end well. He appears to have been charged with careless driving, which is a mandatory court appearance. He may be fined, get up to 5 penalty points if convicted, and possibly prison. "Careless driving: 5 penalty points and a fine of up to €1,500 and/or a possible term of imprisonment." This is all from the layman's view, from reading in the paper and googling so obviously someone more knowledgeable can give you better info. In my opinion, he best plead guilty, wear a suit, demonstrate extreme regret (having a bad day will not suffice) take the punishment and he will avoid prison considering nobody was killed. I'd speculate full fine and 5 penalty points, and a conviction that will affect future visas (but may not prevent him going, best come clean though lying is sure to be detected). Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but at same time what he did wad deadly. Whether or not he needs a solicitor someone else might answer. The above is not intended as legal advice.

edit: see post below

cursai

If its his offence and his attitude is good it'll probably be downgraded to careless driving in court!

Verbatim25

tommy21 wrote: »

2 Guards giving evidence against him after directly observing what he did will not end well. He appears to have been charged with careless driving, which is a mandatory court appearance. He may be fined, get up to 5 penalty points if convicted, and possibly prison. "Careless driving: 5 penalty points and a fine of up to €1,500 and/or a possible term of imprisonment." This is all from the layman's view, from reading in the paper and googling so obviously someone more knowledgeable can give you better info. In my opinion, he best plead guilty, wear a suit, demonstrate extreme regret (having a bad day will not suffice) take the punishment and he might avoid prison considering nobody was killed. I'd speculate full fine and 5 penalty points, and a conviction that will affect future visas (but may not prevent him going, best come clean though lying is sure to be detected). Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but at same time what he did wad deadly. Whether or not he needs a solicitor someone else might answer. The above is not intended as legal advice.

It says on the summons he got that he was being charged with Dangerous driving not careless driving so there will be a more severe punishment dished out if hes convicted of it....Surely they couldn't send him to jail...nobody was hurt and no accident happened....I agree 2 guards giving evidence against him does not bode well for his chances of escaping without a conviction

tommy21

Verbatim25 wrote: »

It says on the summons he got that he was being charged with Dangerous driving not careless driving so there will be a more severe punishment dished out if hes convicted of it....Surely they couldn't send him to jail...nobody was hurt and no accident happened....I agree 2 guards giving evidence against him does not bode well for his chances of escaping without a conviction

Doh! didn't even pick up on that. Well hopefully for his sake as cursai says it will be downgraded to what I describe. I'll step out of this one for now, more on here could give you better advice. All I would say is its vital that he is fully regretful, does not under any circumstances state he was having a bad day (can imagine how that would go down with a particular Cork Judge!), pretty much he needs to say he was a complete idiot and own up to it. That said I wouldn't be saying that if I had been an oncoming driver and he killed me. Going to Australia shouldn't be top of his priorities at moment!

Verbatim25

cursai wrote: »

If its his offence and his attitude is good it'll probably be downgraded to careless driving in court!

I hope your right

dzebro

Hi I have similar problem.
I was driving on a motorway LK + D it was night I was passing by one car and one truck, nobody on the road. I could do 153 kmh as my GPS showed. And what happend? that car I was passing was gardas. He was alone in the car. He didnt show me any proof I was driving HIS 160 kmh. He charged me for a CARELESS DRIVING and I have to appear on the court. Can you tell me what can I do? Or what can I expect? thank you.

slimjimmc

dzebro wrote: »

Hi I have similar problem.
I was driving on a motorway LK + D it was night I was passing by one car and one truck, nobody on the road. I could do 153 kmh as my GPS showed. And what happend? that car I was passing was gardas. He was alone in the car. He didnt show me any proof I was driving HIS 160 kmh. He charged me for a CARELESS DRIVING and I have to appear on the court. Can you tell me what can I do? Or what can I expect? thank you.

"passing by one car and one truck, nobody on the road.":p

The Garda doesn't need to show proof, his duty means he's considered a very trustworthy witness. He doesn't even need to say you were doing 160km/h, only that you were well in excess of 120km/h , and that the manner of your driving (i.e. speeding) constituted careless driving in his opinion.

If he was in an official unmarked car it most likely would have a calibrated speedometer and that would stand up in court better than your sat nav.

Expect a summons and a fine if convicted.

dzebro

yes trustworthy. we were two of us in the car, u think I can oppose somehow? or just to accept what he say. What fine u think i can get? it is my second for speeding.. But I have non irish licence. U think they can find me in their system? Can I tell something that I didnt like to go behind truck so I overtake them. Or it sounds bit stupid.. You think I should take a lawyer?.. will it be helpfull?

coylemj

Verbatim25 wrote: »

..nobody was hurt and no accident happened....

Precisely the problem with the enforcement of RTA legislation in this country, the attitude among a lot of motorists is this: if there are no bodies then what's the problem?

Sure your honour I was only overtaking on a blind bend, yer man coming towards me had a big wide hard shoulder on his side of the road to pull into to let me through!

You don't have to kill someone to be guilty of dangerous driving.

slimjimmc

dzebro wrote: »

yes trustworthy. we were two of us in the car, u think I can oppose somehow? or just to accept what he say. What fine u think i can get? it is my second for speeding.. But I have non irish licence. U think they can find me in their system? Can I tell something that I didnt like to go behind truck so I overtake them. Or it sounds bit stupid.. You think I should take a lawyer?.. will it be helpfull?

The garda would be considered a far more trustworthy witness than you or your passenger.

I'm sure if you were caught here before, they will have a record of your foreign licence in their system and you will be found.
And you can be fined, banned from driving or imprisoned; the nationality of your licence does not matter for those (don't panic, the last 2 are for really serious dangerous driving).
You can not get penalty points on your foreign licence but they will be held on file in case should you get an Irish licence.

I certainly wouldn't use the excuse that you didn't want to wait behind the truck to justify you doing +150km/h. Considering you're not allowed to exceed the speed limit at any time (even when overtaking) I can't see the judge reacting well to that excuse, no Sir it wouldn't be pretty.

Verbatim25

He went to court and was fined €400 :P