A tractor driver from Castlebar has been banned from driving and fined €300 after he caused a seven-mile tailback on the Westport Road last June.
Brian McGuinness, 24 The Grove, Castlebar, did not appear in Castlebar District Court on Wednesday.
However, Judge Mary Devins found the charge of driving without reasonable consideration was proved when she heard the evidence against him in his absence.
Garda John Boyle told the court he was driving from Westport to Castlebar at 11.15am on June 20 last when he came across a tailback involving between 80 and 100 cars.
Garda Boyle presumed it was a funeral cortege, such was the length of the tailback.
When Garda Boyle got on to a straight stretch of road he saw that it was actually a tractor pulling a trailor and digger, driving at between 20 and 25kmph, that was to blame for the hold-up.
Garda Boyle said it took a considerable amount of time for him to safely overtake between 80 and 100 cars to reach the tractor driver, who he pulled over at Derryleigue.
McGuinness, a driver for a plant hire company, told Garda Boyle he thought he had pulled over earlier. However, Garda Boyle said he had been following in the tailback for seven miles and the tractor had not pulled over into the shoulder during this time.
Garda Boyle issued a fixed charge penalty notice, which was never paid.
Judge Mary Devins said everyone on the roads has to exercise “a little bit of consideration”.
She fined McGuinness €300 and disqualified him from driving for one year.
