Judge threatens ‘ultimate sanction’ to Kerry transport company if it re-offends
The KerrymanA judge fined a Killarney transport company €6,250 at Killarney District Court on Tuesday, October 21 and threatened “the ultimate sanction” if it violated road safety regulations again in the future.
A representative for Ed Murphy Plant Hire and Haulage Limited of Cahir, Aghadoe, Killarney pleaded guilty to breaching EU road transport work conditions and for allowing a driver to use a card that was not his own on a tachograph tracking device.
A tachograph records vehicle speed and distance, as well as the amount of time a driver spends driving or resting.
The incidents occurred in different vehicles on May 10, July 18, July 19, July 27 and August 4, 2023.
An inspector for the Road Safety Authority took the stand to say that at Castleisland on May 10, 2023, he saw Jimmy Reidy driving a vehicle for the company but observed there was no driving record on his card. However, there 30 minutes logged for the vehicle on the card in the name of Mark Murphy.
“I put it to him that he was driving on Mark Murphy’s card,” said the inspector. “He said Mark Murphy had dropped the vehicle to Castleisland and he forgot to take his card out.”
The driver allegedly told the inspector he had forgotten to insert his own card and said, “I didn’t think, I have a lot going on at the moment”.
He then retrieved Mark Murphy’s card from his jacket pocket, said the inspector.
The company had previous convictions in March 2020 and February 2023, the court was told.
When asked whether Ed Murphy, a company head, had been cooperative, the inspector replied, “Not entirely cooperative, judge.”
The judge noted the defendant had “a certain kind of attitude” towards both the investigation and the court.
Solicitor Padraig O’Connell suggested that while “the facts are indisputable”, paperwork had been forgotten by management in the day-to-day running of the company.
“For people involved in business, paperwork often runs by the wayside,” said Mr O’Connell. “They do take the business of running a transport company very seriously.”
Judge Waters expressed concern they had not become vigilant after their first conviction.
He convicted and fined €750 for the first charge, increasing by €250 for each subsequent violation.
“If there are further convictions on this company, I will have to consider the ultimate sanction on the directors of this company,” he said.