70-year-old charged with failure to wear seatbelt is cleared on medical grounds
‘This man suffered a very serious shoulder injury and was unable to wear his seatbelt’
A Clonmany man has been cleared of driving without a seatbelt after his solicitor successfully argued that he should have been exempt from wearing it due to a severe shoulder injury.
Richard Doherty, of Letter, Urris, Clonmany, faced the charge at Carndonagh District Court, where a judge gave him the “benefit of the doubt” and struck it out.
The court heard how the 70-year-old was spotted not wearing his seatbelt by Garda Sergeant Vincent Muldoon at Churchland Quarters, Carndonagh on October 9, 2024.
However, Mr Doherty’s solicitor, Ciaran MacLochlainn, handed in a copy of a medical certificate to Judge Ciaran Liddy, asking him to “have a look at that.”
Sergeant Muldoon also looked at the medical document and said he was told nothing about any injuries at the time.
“Judge, the exemption was only signed on June 12, 2025 and the date of this offence was October 9, 2024,” Sgt Muldoon pointed out.
“My record in my notebook is that Richard Doherty was stopped and that the seatbelt [offence] was accepted.”
Sgt Muldoon continued his testimony: “He made no issue in relation to any medical issues or anything like that. There was no mention of any shoulder injury on the date in question.”
Mr MacLochlainn said there was “another letter too”, but Sgt Muldoon said the second letter was dated October 17, 2024, which was also after Mr Doherty was initially apprehended.
Solicitor MacLochlainn told the court that his client was unable to wear a seatbelt for medical reasons.
“This man suffered very serious shoulder injuries and was unable to wear his seatbelt as a result of that.”
“He suffered an ongoing right shoulder injury dating back to Christmas 2023, and he attended his doctor’s surgery about it on March 25, 2024.”
“He was then stopped by the gardai in October 2024, six months later. He couldn’t wear a seatbelt. I actually had a similar cert from my own doctor,” Mr MacLochlainn said.
Judge Liddy was shown another letter revealing how Mr Doherty had attended his GP in March 2024.
Sgt Muldoon agreed: “There was a letter in March and he received some treatment on that date.”
The judge then dismissed the charge against Mr Doherty altogether.
“I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and strike it out,” he ruled.