A driver whose headlights were not working drove his car while leaning out of the window with a flashlight.
Patrick McDonagh, of Blackhills, Glenealy, Co Wicklow, pleaded guilty at the District Court to 34 road traffic offences including drink driving and driving without insurance.
Sgt Pat Cody and Garda Denis Reilly stopped McDonagh on February 12th at Ballinabarney. They found him leaning out the window and illuminating the road with a torch.
At a previous hearing, the defendant told Judge Donnchadh O Buachalla that he was on heavy medication including sleeping tablets, heart tablets, panic attack and nerve tablets. "Some of these tablets are very strong and if you took a drink with them, they'd kill you stone dead," he said.
"We wouldn't want that to happen," the judge said.
At yesterday's sitting the judge asked McDonagh to commit himself to a reform programme. There was a place arranged for him in Athy to assist him with his drinking problem and he agreed to go there. He told the judge that his wife had left him for six weeks but she had returned with the children and had given him a choice. "She said I would have to choose between her and the drink," he told the judge.
The case was adjourned to July 18th to review McDonagh's progress.