A man who was late for a football match crashed his girlfriend's car on the M1 near Swords into a car containing a heavily pregnant South African woman.
Peter Jarvis (22) was using his mobile phone to reply to calls from his team manager and colleagues when he lost control of the car and crossed the median of the motorway before colliding with the car containing the Vizagie family from South Africa.
Veronica Vizagie later gave birth to a healthy baby. All members of the Vizagie family were hospitalised, including Ms Vizagie's son and daughter and her husband, Johan Vizagie snr.
Jarvis, an apprentice plumber of Lally Road, Ballyfermot, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two counts of dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm, drunk driving, driving while uninsured and driving without a licence on the M1 motorway on November 7th, 2004. Judge Patricia Ryan adjourned sentence to October 23rd. Garda Kevin Balfe, of the Garda Traffic Division, told Lisa Dempsey, prosecuting, that analysis of a urine sample revealed Jarvis had a blood alcohol level of 114mg per 100mls.
Garda Balfe agreed with Seán Gillane, defending, that Jarvis had been socialising the night before the accident and got a taxi back to his girlfriend's home, where he stayed the night. He woke the next morning late for a football match and when he turned on his mobile phone, he began to receive calls from the team manager and his team mates.While driving the car, he received another call and turned on his mobile phone's loudspeaker. He told gardaí he had crossed the median of the motorway and lost control of the car.
Garda Balfe agreed with Mr Gillane that Jarvis made a full admission at the earliest opportunity and had not come to the attention of gardaí before or since.
He said Jarvis had "made apologies face to face" to the injured parties. Jarvis had €5,000 in court to offer as compensation to the victims.