The man who drove down Henry Street in Dublin at 60 miles per hour last year, knocking down shoppers like "skittles in a bowling alley", was yesterday jailed for five years by Judge Elizabeth Dunne.
Jacob Odubajo, a native of Nigeria, sped down the crowded pedestrianised street without slowing or swerving to avoid people before ploughing into the back of a stationary construction van, the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told .
Sgt Michael O'Sullivan said one witness had described the scene as like a bowling alley with people being knocked over like skittles.
Another said it looked like a bomb had gone off.
Ten people required hospital treatment following the incident, with two suffering serious injuries.
Odubajo (36), from Clonliffe Road, Drumcondra, pleaded guilty to ten counts of reckless endangerment and two counts of dangerous driving causing serious harm on October 18th, 2001.
Judge Dunne said that the psychiatric report claimed Odubajo had received a letter on the morning of the incident refusing him asylum.
However, the only explanation she heard in court was that he found it difficult to come to terms with the recent death of his mother, as well as that of his brother and grandfather.
"I can only describe this incident as grevious wrongdoing, and it is a miracle that more serious injury or even death did not occur," she said.
"No matter how tragic the personal circumstances of an accused may be, there is absolutely no justification for what occurred," the judge said.
"This man has no mental illness, no handicap and no personality disorder and I'm finding it difficult to explain it.
"I don't accept the suggestion by the defence that it was more reckless than intentional.
"If you drive down a busy pedestrianised street at such speed it is only a natural assumption that injury to others will occur.
"What bothers me most is the significant distance that was covered and it is quite obvious that all the injured parties have been traumatised and some may be so for some time," Judge Dunne concluded.