Judge condemns Kerry livestock exporter for ‘lackadaisical attitude’ over driver safety
The KerrymanA judge rebuked a Killarney company for its ‘lackadaisical attitude’ to EU driving regulations and fined it €2,500, in addition to hundreds in legal fees, at Killarney District Court this week.
Hallissey Livestock Exports Limited of Fossa, Killarney, faced two convictions for failure to ensure the correct use of the driver card on two occasions.
A company driver, Kevin McGivern, was stopped at road check on December 11, 2024 in Ballyduff, East, Kilmeaden, Waterford. Mr McGivern told a Road Safety Authority officer he was coming from Spain with animal feed, the court heard.
The inspecting officer checked the last 57 days of the driver’s log record and found anomalies. He noted a Romanian licenced motorist drove between November 23 and November 30. In violation of EU regulations, the vehicle was driven without the use of driver’s card for a period between November 28 and 30, and in the in 90 km up to the checkpoint. At that point, Mr McGivern’s card was inserted.
“He came across as a man who was trying to mislead me,” said the inspector when asked to describe the driver.
He said he then called the driver’s boss, who displayed visible annoyance with the driver and then the number he had been given for the Romanian driver.
“She was screaming down the phone in a language not known to me,” said the inspector.
Solicitor for the defence, Padraig O’Connell, noted the company was completely unaware of the driver’s actions, as evidence from the phone call.
He observed that the driver, originally from Armagh, no longer worked for the company nor lived in the jurisdiction.
The judge said the company management could access driver records to enforce regulations and had ‘absolute liability’ to monitor this.
“The wholesale breach of the regulation puts other users at risk,” he said.
The company had previously appeared before the courts, he added.
“This man appears to have a lackadaisical attitude to regulations.”
The judge fined the company €1,500 for the December breach, €1,000 for the November breach and ordered it pay for court costs valued at €750.