A motorist was caught speeding as he travelled to a Garda station to stand bail for a relative, a court was told yesterday.
The judge described James Sheridan's driving as "insane" and said he was lucky to be alive.
Sheridan (28) claimed he was driving so fast because he wanted to get his sister-in-law, who had been arrested a short time earlier, released from Garda custody.
He was seen by a Garda car speeding through the Co Donegal village of Burt in a four-wheel vehicle on September 14th last year.
At one stage Sheridan moved into the middle of the road to overtake a number of vehicles, narrowly avoiding vehicles coming in the opposite direction.
Sgt Christy Galligan told Letterkenny District Court he radioed ahead to colleagues who set up a checkpoint and managed to stop Sheridan.
A defence solicitor said Sheridan, a member of the Travelling community with an address at Roche's Road in Limerick, had been travelling to Letterkenny to stand bail for his sister-in-law who had been arrested in the town. She said her client had apologised for his behaviour, and stressed that he had no previous convictions.
However, Judge Conal Gibbons said he could not understand why Sheridan had to drive so fast in order to help his sister-in-law. "She was going nowhere, so what was his big hurry?"
Judge Gibbons fined Sheridan €1,000 and banned him from driving for a year. He said it was important that people realised such "unbelievable" driving would not be tolerated.
"Too many people are being killed on the roads because people are taking too many chances."