A judge convicted Limerick hurling star Kyle Hayes of dangerous driving and then criticised the media for covering the case.
Judge Colm Roberts banned Hayes (26) from driving for two years and fined him €250 after finding him guilty of one count of dangerous driving on the N20 Cork-Limerick road, on July 14th, 2024.
Judge Roberts said Hayes, who had no previous convictions for dangerous driving and had held a previously clean driving licence, drove at 155km/h in a 100km/h speed limit zone while overtaking nine cars, on stretch of roadway at Lissavoura, Grenagh, near Mallow, Co Cork.
Sentencing Hayes at Mallow District Court on Tuesday, Judge Roberts told the five-time All-Ireland winning hurler: “Speed kills, and this was excessive and dangerous speed.”
Judge Roberts said the case merited conviction for dangerous driving, and not for a lesser offence of careless driving which Hayes had offered to plead guilty to.
Judge Roberts said that, in convicting Hayes of the more serious offence of dangerous driving, “I am actually trying to keep him (Hayes) alive”.
“There are too many deaths on the roads, and he (Hayes) might think he’s (the) chosen (one) and that things won’t go wrong for him, but things do go wrong,” the judge said.
Hayes’ barrister, Liam Carroll BL, told the judge that Hayes conceded he was speeding at 155km/h in a 100km/h speed zone.
“This was a lapse of judgement on his (Hayes’s) part, it was an error, it was a mistake,” said Mr Carroll.
However, in response to this, Judge Roberts told the barrister: “This was beyond that. I can’t accept in any way his his (Hayes’s) actions were not dangerous, and I’m satisfied to convict him of dangerous driving.”
Speed limit
Garda Deidre Barrett gave evidence that she was conducting a speed check of vehicles traveling on the road, and whilst monitoring nine vehicles which were all traveling under the speed limit and at “a safe from each other”, she said she observed Hayes’s 191 registered white coloured Audi A6 overtaking all nine vehicles on approach to a section of the road which narrows from two lanes to one.
Garda Barrett said Hayes was driving at “high speed” as he overtook the cars.
Garda Barrett said when she eventually stopped Hayes further up the road in her marked patrol car, Hayes told her he didn’t realise he had been speeding.
Garda Barrett told the court that Hayes, as well as an unidentified passenger in his car, told her that they believed the speed limit for dangerous driving in Limerick was 160km/h — Hayes’s barrister said Hayes denied saying this to the garda.
Hayes told Garda Barrett he had been in West Cork and was returning home to Limerick.
Garda Barrett arrested Hayes, of Ballyashea, Kildimo, Co Limerick, at the roadside and brought him to Mallow Garda Station and charged him with dangerous driving.
Liam Carroll said Hayes’s explanation for speeding was that “he ran out of the road”, and that, “in an attempt to get out of the way of the other cars, he increased his speed”.
The court heard that driving conditions, the condition of the road and the roadworthiness of Hayes’s car were all good on the day.
Garda Barrett told Mr Carroll there have been “a lot of collisions” on the same stretch of road over the years.
Hayes sat in the witness box and told the court he travels on the same road “a couple” of times a year.
Hayes said he was driving behind cars that were all “travelling under the speed limit” and he indicated to overtake them, but that he hadn’t realised the dual lane road was also merging up ahead of him.
Hayes said he “sped up to get ahead” of the last car because he “didn't want to cut him off”.
Hayes admitted he did not notice a number of road signs indicating the lanes were merging.
Overtaking
Hayes told judge Roberts: “I thought I had more space.”
Answering the judge, Hayes acknowledged that overtaking nine cars was an “exception” to the rule.
Hayes agreed with the judge that speed was a “serious issue causing deaths on the roads”.
Hayes nodded in agreement with judge Roberts that speeding and not taking into account the amount of traffic on a road were all “likely to be dangerous” behaviour when driving.
Hayes agreed with Judge Roberts that the Limerick hurler was driving a “powerful car” and that cars in general are “killing machines”.
Hayes said his driving on the day was “definitely careless” and he agreed with the judge that he “didn’t take extra care” of his surroundings.
“He (Hayes) could have happily stayed behind the other cars - he’s obliged to take account of it - but he didn't just overtake one car, he didn't just overtake two cars, he had nine cars to consider, he could have slowed down, but he chose to speed up...that’s more dangerous,” the judge said.
Judge Roberts said Hayes was “unfortunate” because, in his opinion, Hayes’ case appeared to be the only case before the court that a gathering of attending journalists were present to report on.
The judge said it was “funny they (the media) turn up for this type of case” when he said other more serious cases were before him recently “and not one member of the media was in court for it”.
“Mr Hayes is getting additional attention because of who he is, and I understand that,” Judge Roberts said.
At this point, a member of the public applauded, to which the judge replied he was “not looking” for claps.
The judge eventually told the members of the media present in the courtroom that he also understood they had their job to do.
Sergeant Majella O’Sullivan told the court that Hayes’s dangerous driving conviction, which he has indicated he will appeal, had triggered a “Section 99” previous conviction for violent disorder.
Judge Roberts fixed recognisance in the event of an appeal, and he returned Hayes to Limerick Circuit Criminal Court for consideration of activation of the two-year suspended sentence imposed on him last March, after he was convicted by a jury of two counts of violent disorder in and around the icon nightclub, Limerick, on October 28th, 2019.
Hayes was found not guilty by the jury of one count of assault causing harm to another man on the same date at the same location.
