The trial of the Dublin Bus driver charged in connection with the deaths of five pedestrians has been delayed to give his defence team more time to prepare their case.
Kenneth Henvey (48), Whitethorn Crescent, Clondalkin, is charged with dangerous driving causing the deaths of five people at a bus stop on Wellington Quay on February 21st, 2004.
Michael O'Higgins SC, told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that his client's legal team has uncovered what he called "very, very specific technical leads into what might have caused the accident".
Mr O'Higgins told Judge Desmond Hogan the defence team would not have time to investigate the new issues before July 13th, 2005, the scheduled date for the trial.
He said that while Dublin Bus had conducted a strong internal investigation involving substantial expertise into the accident, Mr Henvey's legal team was also going to recruit the services of experts from the United Kingdom.
Mr O'Higgins further pointed out that a trial date had been sought for Mr Henvey unusually early in the process.
Patrick McGrath BL, prosecuting, told Judge Hogan that the Director of Public Prosecutions was opposed to such an adjournment as "a considerable amount of effort" has been put into arranging for the 129 witnesses in the case to be available for the trial date.
Judge Hogan accepted the application to vacate the trial date and said the case should be mentioned again on May 25th, 2005. "It is up to the defence then to fix a trial date or not on that day," he said.