Caution handed to 114mph teenage speeder - and he is to be referred to PPS

​The incident, which occurred southbound on the A26 in south Antrim, is the latest case of extreme speeding which the News Letter has reported on recently.

He has not been named because he has no appeared in court so far.

Details of the case were revealed by the PSNI’s Road Policing and Safety wing.

It posted on its Facebook page at 11.30pm on Sunday: “114mph. Not on a dual carriageway. Not on a motorway.

“This happened this evening on a single carriageway A-road heading towards Moira.

"It’s just possible that we may have saved the lives of the 18-year-old driver and three young passengers by stopping them in their tracks.

"We’ve been to enough serious collisions where an excess of speed and lack of experience have combined to cause a devastating impact on the families and friends left behind.

"Obviously the driver will soon be in front of the magistrate.”

The post ended by saying “[we are] repeating ourselves here, but speed kills”.

However, whether he will indeed end up in front of a magistrate is not certain.

Asked for some more details about the case on Monday, the PSNI told the News Letter a file will be sent to the PPS.

"The PPS will make a decision regarding a court appearance,” it said.

"The driver was cautioned at scene, and his reply was noted in preparation of the file for the PPS.”

The News Letter has covered several speeding cases recently.

In mid-January the paper reported on the story of Conrad Doole, who had been convicted of doing 103mph in a 60mph zone in his Audi A5 at Ballybogey Road, near Ballymoney.

Doole was banned from driving for two months and fined £300 over the offence.

However, during the course of his appearance in front of district judge Nigel Broderick at Ballymena Magistrates' Court last month, it was revealed that Doole (aged 53 and of Mount Street in Coleraine) had previously killed a man by careless driving.

Back in 2009 he had been driving a white van when it fatally hit dog walker Robert Callaghan, aged 40, not far from the Giant’s Causeway.

Doole pleaded guilty to death by careless driving and was sentenced to one year in jail – reduced to nine months on appeal.

As well as the death conviction, Doole came before the court last month with 15 other prior convictions including five cases of speeding, plus reckless driving, careless driving, no insurance, and no seat belt.

Last summer Mark McMahon, 46 and of Glebe Manor in Newtownabbey, was convicted of speeding after being caught doing 139mph on a motorbike on the A8 in south Antrim.

He was banned for three months and fined £300.

McMahon had also been charged with failing to say who was driving the bike, but this was withdrawn following his guilty plea for speeding.

He was not charged with dangerous driving – in contrast to Andrew Robert Steele (30, of Bryan Street in Larne) who had been convicted a week earlier of speeding and dangerous driving, having been clocked at 132mph on the same stretch of road.

He got a one-year driving ban and a £400 fine (and launched an appeal against the dangerous driving aspect of his conviction).