A bus driver has gone on trial accused of causing the death of a 62-year-old mother when he drove through west Dublin in a private bus he took without permission from his employer’s depot two years ago.
Peter Clarke (38) collided with numerous vehicles on May 07, 2006 in what prosecution counsel, Ms Pauline Walley SC, described at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court as “an odyssey of destruction” resulting in Ms Marie Buckley’s death.
Ms Walley told the jury it would hear evidence of how the victim was trapped in her car which was then carried several hundred metres down the road after it “lodged” on the front of the bus after the collision.
She said that as well as causing the death of Ms Buckley, he damaged around 25 vehicles - including unmarked garda cars - during his rampage in the Bluebell and Naas Road areas, and that he threatened gardai with a knife and an axe.
She added there would also be evidence that gardai tried to shoot the bus’s tyres as it travelled at speed against oncoming traffic on the Naas Road.
Mr Clarke, of Kiltalown Court, Tallaght has pleaded not guilty to 28 charges, including manslaughter through dangerous driving, criminal damage and reckless endangerment.
The trial continues before Judge Desmond Hogan and a jury of eight women and four men.