A BUS driver involved in a fatal road crash in Co Meath told gardaí his brakes had failed to respond just before the collision, Trim Circuit Court has heard.
Sorin Dinu (44), Castlecurragh Heath, Mulhuddart, Dublin has denied a charge of dangerous driving causing the death of Cathal O’Leary at Johnstown, Enfield, Co Meath, on February 23rd, 2009.
Mr O’Leary had been driving to Dublin when his SUV and a Bus Éireann bus coming from Dublin and driven by the defendant were involved in a collision at the Dublin roundabout near Enfield on the old Dublin to Galway road.
Sgt Robert Harrison told the court that when interviewed by gardaí a month after the incident Mr Dinu said he had been on his way to Enfield to begin the 6.30am run to Dublin that morning.
He had travelled the route “hundreds of times” prior to that.
“I know the road as well as my own pocket,” he said.
He told gardaí the vehicle was on cruise control but he could not remember whether he had set it on 80km/h or 100km/h.
He said that as he approached the roundabout he applied the foot brake but it did not respond.
The court heard he had told gardaí he had tried to avoid a number of cars he had seen on the roundabout.
“Nobody more than me wants to find out what happened,” he said. He could not recall telling a witness who had given him first aid at the scene that the crash had not been the bus’s fault but his, he said.
Barry Hickson for the defence said the truth was that his client had been “powerless” at the time of the incident.
Garda Paul Monaghan a forensic accident investigator told the court that marks on the road after the crash showed the bus had not been braking at the roundabout and for some reason turned to the right “and was completely on the wrong side of the road”.
He said his examination of the scene showed that after hitting the raised island in the centre of the roundabout the bus had been airborne for seven metres before it landed in gravel on the top of the island.
The bus had continued on and the back of the vehicle had struck the back of Mr O’Leary’s SUV and then crashed through a fence, Garda Monaghan said.
The trial continues.