Fine and driving ban for speeding motorist
"The speed you were travelling at was simply horrendous," Judge Marie Keane told a man who was before her in Nenagh District Court on Friday week last for breaking the 120kph limit on the M7 near the town.
Lukasz Kalinski appeared before the court on a charge of dangerous driving after a garda detected his black coloured Audi car travelling at 195kph at Clashnevin, Toomevara, on September 1st last year.
However, Judge Keane reduced the charge to a less serious charge of careless driving on the application of the State, but said the carelessness of the driving was "at the highest end of the spectrum".
Sergeant Declan O' Carroll of Nenagh Garda Station said Mr Kalinski had a previous conviction for exceeding speed in a 50km limit zone.
Defending solicitor Elizabeth McKeever said her client, a 35-year-old Polish national, was bringing a friend to Shannon Airport and they were running late to catch a flight. "He realises that it was a hugely excessive speed."
The offence had been detected over a year ago and her client had not been in any trouble since then. Ms McKeever urged the judge not to ban Mr Kalinski from driving, because he needed his car for a new job he had secured as an engineer in Dublin.
A charge of having no 'L' plates on the vehicle was withdrawn by the State, but the defendant was charged with driving while unaccompanied by a qualified driver.
"The speed of at which this gentleman was travelling was simply horrendous," said the judge, noting the car was nine-years-old.
She said that not only was he putting his own life at risk, but that of other road users and the two passengers who accompanied him.
Mr Kalinski clearly had no regard for the traffic laws on the date and the speed he was travelling at could not be tolerated.
The judge fined him €200 and banned him from driving for 12 months on the careless driving charge. She imposed a further fine of €100 on the defendant, of Glentworth Park, Ard Na Greine, Dublin 13, for driving a car without being accompanied by a qualifed driver.
The judge added: "He is the author entirely of his own misfortune.
"Your were late [for the flight], but you must leave on time."