Martin O’Donnell, who denied he had been involved in an all-night drinking celebration, told Judge John O’Connor in the Circuit Civil Court Wednesday he did have drink taken when a friend and next-door neighbour offered him a lift at 10 in the morning on October 15th, 2015. He was 40 on the day before.
He told barrister Conor Kearney, counsel for the MIBI, he had no memory of a high-speed chase through roundabouts near Blanchardstown to escape gardaí and which ended in a head-on collision on the wrong side of the road with a Range Rover and a serious head gash that required 10 stitches.
Previous injuries
Mr Kearney, who appeared with Stephen Mackenzie Solicitors for the MIBI and FBD Insurance, told him in cross-examination he was a serial road traffic offender and claimant. O’Donnell agreed he had been treated for frontal gunshot wounds to his lower limbs, abdomen and chest in 2001 and again in 2003 when he had been shot in the lower limbs and back.
He also agreed he had been injured in a knife and machete attack to his head and left arm in 2004 as well as in road traffic accidents in 2009, 2010, two in 2012, another in 2014 and three, some still pending, in 2015. He had already obtained €7,000, €10,000 and €14,000 pay-outs but in some cases had not taken a claim.
O’Donnell, of St Philomena’s Park, Ballycoolin, Blanchardstown, said he had no memory of having threatened to hit Detective Garda Stewart Gleeson over the head with a full two-litre bottle of vodka, which he had in the car with him, before smashing it on the ground.
Unroadworthy
He told the court his friend and next door neighbour Patrick Mongan had given him a lift in a Ford Fiesta car which, Mr Kearney pointed out, had no number plates, was entirely unroadworthy and had a smashed windscreen. He said Mongan had not been drinking with him and another friend earlier that morning.
Detective Garda Gleeson said he and Det. Garda Bernard Connaughton had been in an unmarked garda car when he recognised O’Donnell and Mongan pass him in a car which he suspected was a stolen vehicle as the top of the driver’s door had been bent outwards as if forced open in a break-in.
When the blue lights had been switched on, indicating that the Fiesta should stop, it had taken off at high speed, sometimes reaching 130 kph in 60km zones and forcing other vehicles to take evasive action. When it crashed on the wrong side of the road O’Donnell and another passenger, John Maughan, had been taken to hospital by ambulance while Detective Garda Connaughton arrested Mr Mongan.
Judge O’Connor dismissed O’Donnell’s €60,000 claim with an order for costs against him on grounds that he had been drunk and had got into a car driven by a man he knew to be very drunk and have no insurance and had failed to co-operate with gardaí.
“I really have to compliment the gardaí for the manner in which they intercepted this vehicle and probably avoided a fatality taking place,” Judge O’Connor said.
The Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland’s acceptance to indemnify uninsured or untraced drivers stipulates that a claimant shall co-operate fully with the Gardai and anyone entering a vehicle they know to be uninsured shall be excluded from cover for injury.
