A CLEAR message has been sent out to people who engage in or facilitate sulky racing on public roads – you can expect imprisonment if prosecuted. Judge Eugene O’Kelly was the man with the message at Limerick District Court last week when he heard evidence in a case where “support cars” were blocking a public road and “engaging in an extremely dangerous activity”. His comments came when 26-year-old Ian Butler of Downey Street, Garryowen narrowly escaped a prison sentence on a charge of dangerous driving as a result of representations by his defence solicitor.
The court was told that his car was one of 30 vehicles bound for Limerick in support of a sulky race that had “commandeered the public road for a private race”on the main road to Boher at 8.30am last New Year’s Eve.
Inspector Paul Reidy said that Mr Butler was “engaged in an extremely dangerous activity while he had no insurance”.
When defending solicitor John Devane, said his insurance was “just shortly out of date”, Judge O’Kelly replied that “it was not going to be any good to an injured person in the event of an accident”.
“It’s extremely arrogant of people to think they can commandeer a public road for a private race. Your client and his colleagues, were putting unsuspecting drivers in extreme danger. Someone could have been hospitalised”, he told Mr Devane.
Mr Devane said that sulky racing was part of his client’s background adding that it was “genetically inbred into a horsey background” to which Judge O’Kelly replied that it was “no problem if they wanted to race around the fields, but not on the roadways”.
Imposing a four month prison sentence suspended for 12 months, Judge O’Kelly said he wanted to send out “a very clear message that if you do this, you can expect imprisonment from now on.”
The defendant was also disqualified for eight years for dangerous driving and for two years for driving without insurance.
