Northern Ireland road traffic deaths: Judge asks why 'hardly a day goes by' without drivers hitting over 100mph
A judge has asked why “hardly a day goes by” now without him dealing with drivers hitting speeds of over 100mph on Northern Ireland roads.
District Judge Nigel Broderick also asked Antrim Magistrates' Court, sitting in Ballymena, if drivers were not aware of the dangers involved in such speeds.
He was told how Martin Carville, 29, of Siulnamona Court in Belfast, was detected doing 102mph in a 70mph zone – the M2 motorway.
The incident was on July 4, the court heard, after he was informed his partner had gone into labour.
Earlier this summer the News Letter reported the prosecution of three others drivers hitting 139mph, 132mph and 105mph on NI roads.
As a prosecutor began outlining the latest case, the judge said: “Why am I constantly seeing drivers driving at excess of 100mph. There is hardly a day goes by that I haven't got these cases in front of me.
“Is nobody aware of the dangers of driving so fast and the risks to their licence when they do so?”
A defence barrister said the defendant was aware and "it is not wasted on him".
The lawyer then told the court that what “set this case perhaps slightly different from others” was that the defendant received a phone call saying his partner had gone into labour.
The defendant had been in the Ballycastle area and he was panicked and determined to get to his partner.
Judge Broderick said: “There is always a reason. When you hit somebody at 100mph, even if you are going to put out a fire, it is still cold comfort for the person you hit.”
The judge told the defendant: “I deliver this warning to defendants all too often. I take a dim view of anyone who drives at 100mph.
“No doubt you felt there was a good reason because you were running to the aid of your partner who was about to give birth but in doing so you created danger on the roads and had there been an accident at this speed there could have been significant injury if not worse.”
The judge said there “must be a deterrence to all people who consider driving at 100mph or faster. It is not acceptable and it must stop”.
He was banned for one month and fined £150.
In July Mark McMahon, 46, of Glebe Manor, Newtownabbey, was banned from driving for three months at Ballymena Magistrates' Court after being caught speeding at 139mph on a motorbike on the A8 outside Larne. It came exactly a week after Andrew Robert Steele, 30, of Bryan Street in Larne, was convicted by Antrim Magistrates' Court of speeding and dangerous driving, having been clocked at 132mph on the same road.
Also in July Antrim Magistrates’ Court heard how 18-year-old Syrian refugee Louay Almohamad was caught driving at 105mph in Randalstown. The ‘R’ driver was handed a two-month ban and fined £200.