‘Incoherent’ drunk driver who flipped car in Laois banned 

A woman who flipped a car onto its side began abusing Gardaí and ambulance staff who attended the scene. 

Audrey Flanagan, 57, with an address at 1 Rheban Manor, Athy  was charged with drink driving and failure to produce a licence and insurance at Larchfield on the R425 Abbeyleix Road on April 28, 2022. She wasn’t present in court for the hearing.

Garda McAteer from Abbeyleix Garda Station said a call came into the station at about 11.30pm on the night in question. He arrived at the scene ten minutes later. 

At the scene, he met a witness who had been driving behind the silver Hyundai car before it crashed. 

“The car was on its side. The passenger window was in a ditch,” he said. 

“The engine was running and the window wipers were running at high speed,” he recalled. 

He said a woman was in the car and she “appeared to be extremely incoherent” and there was “a small bit of blood” running down her forehead. 

Garda McAteer explained to the woman that he was going to break the driver's side window as the car was resting on the passenger side. He said the woman started shouting at him and refused to cover her face to protect her eyes while he broke the driver’s window. He smashed the window and turned the car off. 

He then explained to the driver that an ambulance was on the way. 

Garda McAteer then informed the women that he would be breaking the windshield in order to get her from the car. She began “shouting obscenities” at Gardai, he explained. 

The windshield was then broken and she was assisted from the car. 

“I could get a very strong smell of intoxicating liquor from her breath,” said Garda McAteer. 

He said when the ambulance arrived at 11.45pm the defendant was unable to walk. She was assisted across the road to the ambulance. While being assessed, the woman had “violent outbursts towards ambulance personnel”  and a decision was made to get a “paddy wagon” out to bring her to hospital. 

She was taken to hospital in Portlaoise where she was treated. Gardai obtained a urine sample from the accused at the hospital. She was also requested to provide details of her insurance and licence within ten days. 

Garda McAteer said the sample was analysed and a reading was returned of 244 milligrams per 100mls of urine. He said she failed to provide any documentation following the incident.   

Witness Gemma Corcoran told the court she had been driving behind the car before the collision. She recalled the car swerving left and right across the road before the crash.

“Eventually she went extreme right into the ditch and then flipped over,” Ms Corcoran explained. 

The court was told the defendant had no previous convictions. Garda McAteer said he believed she had a “bad issue with alcohol” and he had come across her in relation to a public order incident a day before the crash.

Judge Andrew Cody convicted the woman in her absence and disqualified her from driving for three years and fined her €500. He fined her €250 for failing to produce insurance.