Five months in jail for driver who crashed car into pick-up truck
By Brendan Grehan
A BANNED driver who collided head-on into a pick-up truck has been jailed for five months by Blanchardstown Court.
Jailing Zydrunas Zukas, Judge David McHugh told the court that “he should be grateful for his own life and the life of the person he crashed into.”
Zukas, aged 30, with an address at Riverside Park, Coolock, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, no insurance, no driving licence and giving a false name to a garda at the Clonee Road, Lucan, on May 11, 2017.
Garda Derek McGuinness told the court that at 4.44am on May 11, 2017, he responded to a report of a road traffic accident at the hump-backed bridge at the Clonee Road in Lucan. He said a Ford Fiesta was at a right angle from a Mitsubishi crew cab pick-up.
Garda McGuinness said the driver of the Fiesta, Zukas, gave a false name and continued to give a false name even when his partner turned up at the garda station with his passport.
He said Zukas had not been insured and was banned from driving at the time of the accident.
Garda McGuinness said the woman in the pick-up had been driving over the bridge when Zukas came driving down the wrong side of the road and collided with her.
He said the woman had an MRI done on her shoulder and is due to have one on her knees. He said the pick-up was written off and added that the woman had been driving to the airport to go on holiday.
Garda McGuinness said Zukas had five previous convictions. At District Court 44 on February 26, 2014, he had received a four-year ban for no insurance. At Dublin Circuit Court on February 28, 2012, he got a two-year ban for drunken driving.
Zukas’ counsel, Jennifer Jackson BL, said her client wanted to make a sincere apology to the female driver. She said Zukas had been driving home from work and thinks he may have fallen asleep at the wheel.
Judge McHugh said that after looking at the photos it was a miracle that Zukas and the injured party had escaped with their lives.
He noted that Zukas had a previous for no insurance and one for drunken driving and said that the offence before the court merited a custodial sentence.
He sentenced Zukas to five months jail with a two-year ban for dangerous driving and fined him €500 with a six-year ban for having no insurance.
