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05/06/2008
Former Bus Driver Admits Bus Caused Death Of Pensioner
A man accused of a destructive rampage in a bus, has admitted the vehicle's eventual crash led to the death of a pensioner.
Former bus driver, Peter Clarke, 38, is alleged to have taken the bus without the permission of his employer, before engaging in what the prosecution described as "an odyssey of destruction" leading to the death of 62 year-old Ms Marie Buckley.
Defence counsel Hugh Hartnett made the admissions on Clarke's behalf, saying he took a 53-seater coach without permission from Dualways Bus Company depot.
It collided with numerous vehicles, resulting in Ms Buckley's death "from multiple injuries to her head, chest, pelvis and lower limbs, consistent with being dragged along the road as the bus ploughed through vehicles in front of her dark blue Nissan Micra".
Clarke also admitted driving at gardai as they attempted to employ a 'stinger' device to deflate the bus's tyres, and to producing a knife, knuckle-duster and hatchet while violently resisting arrest.
Clarke faces a total of 28 charges, including damaging up to 25 vehicles, some of them unmarked gardaí cars, in the Bluebell and Naas Road areas of Dublin.
Prosecuting counsel, Pauline Walley, said the accused was on the roster to drive another bus from Dualways Bus Company depot at Rathcoole but stole a 53-seater single decker coach and was spotted by his boss driving it around Heuston Station at about midday.
She told the court Mr Clarke drove the bus at his boss when he followed him into Heuston Station car park and tried to persuade him to return the vehicle.
She said the accused's boss continued to follow the bus and rang the gardaí when he saw him in the Citywest area a short time later.
Counsel further said Clarke had ploughed into traffic as he tried to escape gardaí. The dead woman had tried to escape her car as the bus approached but had become stuck, before the bus collided with the vehicle and dragged it for a distance before crashing into an embankment at the back of the bus depot.
(DW)
Former bus driver, Peter Clarke, 38, is alleged to have taken the bus without the permission of his employer, before engaging in what the prosecution described as "an odyssey of destruction" leading to the death of 62 year-old Ms Marie Buckley.
Defence counsel Hugh Hartnett made the admissions on Clarke's behalf, saying he took a 53-seater coach without permission from Dualways Bus Company depot.
It collided with numerous vehicles, resulting in Ms Buckley's death "from multiple injuries to her head, chest, pelvis and lower limbs, consistent with being dragged along the road as the bus ploughed through vehicles in front of her dark blue Nissan Micra".
Clarke also admitted driving at gardai as they attempted to employ a 'stinger' device to deflate the bus's tyres, and to producing a knife, knuckle-duster and hatchet while violently resisting arrest.
Clarke faces a total of 28 charges, including damaging up to 25 vehicles, some of them unmarked gardaí cars, in the Bluebell and Naas Road areas of Dublin.
Prosecuting counsel, Pauline Walley, said the accused was on the roster to drive another bus from Dualways Bus Company depot at Rathcoole but stole a 53-seater single decker coach and was spotted by his boss driving it around Heuston Station at about midday.
She told the court Mr Clarke drove the bus at his boss when he followed him into Heuston Station car park and tried to persuade him to return the vehicle.
She said the accused's boss continued to follow the bus and rang the gardaí when he saw him in the Citywest area a short time later.
Counsel further said Clarke had ploughed into traffic as he tried to escape gardaí. The dead woman had tried to escape her car as the bus approached but had become stuck, before the bus collided with the vehicle and dragged it for a distance before crashing into an embankment at the back of the bus depot.
(DW)
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