A Brickens woman swerved her car onto the wrong side of the road and crashed head on into another car because a cat jumped off her lap, Ballyhaunis District Court was told this week.
Yasmin Maguire, Brickens, Claremorris, had charges of drink driving withdrawn against her in court after she pleaded guilty to dangerous driving which was mitigated down to careless driving by Judge Mary Devins in sentencing.
Inspector Joe Doherty, outlining the facts of the case, said that at 7.50pm on January 17 2012, gardai were called to the scene of a two car collision at Cloontemper, Ballyhaunis. The car being driven by Maguire had veered across the road suddenly and into the car being driven by a Mr Frank Pye. Garda John Devane was the garda to respond to the accident and he spoke to Maguire and got a smell of alcohol from her and found alcohol in the car. He arrested her for drink driving, but those charges were dropped by gardai in court this week.
Inspector Doherty went on to say that Maguire told gardai she had a cat on her lap in the car and it had jumped off her lap, giving her a shock and causing her to swerve the car across the road.
Judge Devins asked whether Garda Devane saw a cat in the car and Inspector Doherty said he did not. Solicitor for Maguire, Charlie Gilmartin, in mitigation for his client to try to get the conviction reduced to careless driving, told the court that Maguire, who lived in Bekan, Ballyhaunis, was a 39-year-old single mother of a 12-year-son. On the night in question the cat had gone missing and her son who suffers from ADD was very fond of the cat and he went looking for the cat and found it. Mr Gilmartin said the cat was not used to travelling in the car and it became startled and jumped off her lap causing her to swerve across the road. Following evidence from Mr Pye, Judge Devins convicted and fined Maguire €500 for a lesser charge of careless driving an ordered her to pay €100 witness expenses.
