AN UNINSURED "boy racer" who was chased at high speed by gardaí for an hour and 10 minutes from Galway city as far as Shrule in Co Mayo and back again on a wet, foggy night was sentenced to 21 months detention at Galway District Court.
Judge Mary Fahy said it was one of the worst cases of dangerous driving she had ever come across during her 15 years on the bench.
Hugh O'Sullivan (20), of Cloonee, Headford, pleaded guilty to 20 charges of dangerous driving and to driving without insurance on July 22nd last year.
The judge said she could not understand why the gardaí followed the accused that night as they were risking their own lives.
The judge said she had to send out a message because the charges were so serious and because the accused seemed to show no remorse.
She imposed consecutive sentences on seven of the dangerous driving charges and on the insurance charge, totalling 21 months' detention. She also disqualified O'Sullivan from driving for seven years.
The 90-mile chase began at around 12.30am at Ballybrit industrial estate in Galway city, when Garda Gerry Staunton and Garda Jason Kelly found O'Sullivan doing "donuts" with his Toyota Starlet. O'Sullivan, who was accompanied by a female front-seat passenger, drove straight at the Garda car at speed and only veered away from a head-on collision at the last second. He then left the estate at high speed and the chase ensued.
Insp Seán Glynn said O'Sullivan drove at excessive speed during the entire chase and without any regard for any other road-user.
O'Sullivan, he said, went out the N17, towards Tuam, overtaking three cars on a large median strip, doing 145km/h. He drove in on the hard shoulder while overtaking two more cars and continued to overtake more traffic on several bends on the road as he headed towards Co Mayo.
A heavy, dense fog from then on brought visibility down to under 30m (100ft), but he never reduced his speed. He continued to drive at 160km/h and overtake traffic.
O'Sullivan overtook several cars on blind bends in the fog, forcing many on-coming cars to take evasive action. On several occasions on the narrow roads in north Galway and south Mayo, all four wheels of his car left the road as he hit bumps at high speed. He went as far as Kilmaine in Co Mayo and then started driving back in the direction of Shrule, going through the village at 110km/h. He went straight across the main N17 road narrowly missing two cars travelling in opposite directions at that second.
"A split second either way and there could have been a number of fatalities there," Insp Glynn said.
Insp Glynn said O'Sullivan showed no remorse. When asked why he had not stopped, when the gardaí activated the siren and lights in Ballybrit over an hour beforehand, O'Sullivan said the gardaí had taken a car from him before and they were not going to get their hands on the one he was driving that night.
Defence solicitor Olivia Traynor said O'Sullivan's father was killed in a car accident when he was five years old and his mother had raised him and his siblings on her own. She said O'Sullivan was now back living at home, and his mother was trying to have him psychiatrically assessed.