A District Court judge, Mrs Mary Martin, was cleared of careless driving in Dublin District Court yesterday.
Judge Martin, who sits in Co Laois, denied the charge arising out of a collision with another car as she travelled to Dublin Airport for a holiday abroad with her husband and three children.
The court was told the incident occurred as she was about to enter the airport's long-term car park on March 28th, 1999.
As she turned right from a slip lane towards the car-park entrance, a Nissan Bluebird driven by a transport manager, Mr Derek Moore, struck the passenger side of her Volkswagen Golf.
Nobody was hurt but Mr Moore was in a state of shock. He declined to go to hospital.
Mrs Martin told Judge Timothy Lucey that Mr Moore's car suddenly came towards her at speed. She remembered saying: "Oh my Jesus, where is he coming from?"
She denied she was in a hurry as she had nearly one hour and 20 minutes before check-in for her flight to Faro in Portugal. She agreed her view was somewhat restricted by traffic in another lane ahead of her, but said she had made the manoeuvre in a safe manner.
"As I proceeded into the junction, there was no evidence of anything coming against me. I am 33 years driving totally accident-free."
The court was told there were accidents regularly at this junction and the direction from which Mrs Martin had come was the only one of four which did not have a filter light.
Mr Anthony O'Keeffe, a consulting engineer called on Mrs Martin's behalf, said Fingal Council was "clearly negligent" in failing to cater for people turning from the lane Mrs Martin had used.
Mr Moore said he had approached the junction at about 20 to 25m.p.h., as he was aware that there had been accidents there. But he could do nothing to avoid Mrs Martin's car as she cut right in front of him.
Judge Lucey said it was difficult to know what really happened. He had a doubt, however, that it was due to lack of care and attention on the part of Mrs Martin and on that basis he was dismissing the charge.