Aleksandrs Garkovskis sentenced for dangerous driving injury

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Aleksandrs Garkovskis was sentenced to two and a half years for dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm. He pleaded guilty to the offence. The proceedings were reported on 2 April 2025.

The collision occurred on Sheriff Street Upper, Dublin 1, on 13 June 2021, when Garkovskis was 17. The sentence was deferred until 11 April to allow him to complete his college exams.

The cyclist sustained catastrophic brain injuries and several fractures. The court heard he had no recollection of the collision, suffered from slurred speech and other health issues, and continued to receive rehabilitation while living in assisted accommodation.

Judge Martin Nolan said the cyclist’s injuries were devastating and that his former life had evaporated. He treated Garkovskis’s driving through a red light and failure to remain at the scene as aggravating factors. The judge considered his young age and said he would have imposed five years on an adult, but reduced the sentence to two and a half years because of Garkovskis’s youth.

Garkovskis initially told gardaí he had been a passenger and another person had been driving. He made admissions after being shown CCTV and said the traffic light was orange when he passed through it. His guilty plea was accepted as valuable to the prosecution.