{"id":446400,"date":"2026-05-13T08:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/446400\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T08:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:32:09","slug":"man-in-court-charged-with-doing-166kph-on-donegal-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/446400\/","title":{"rendered":"Man in court charged with doing 166kph on Donegal road"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A District Court judge has refused an application to reduce a charge of dangerous driving by a young man clocked at 166km\/h on a Donegal road.<\/p>\n<p>Darragh Cummings appeared before Judge Emile Daly at Letterkenny District Court.<\/p>\n<p>The 18-year-old, of Sunvale Park, Greysteel, was charged in connection with an incident at Rossbracken on April 19, 2026. The road in question is governed by a speed limit of 100km\u2019\/h.<\/p>\n<p>Having initially represented himself, Judge Daly advised Cummings that he ought to seek legal advice.<\/p>\n<p>Solicitor Mr Rory O\u2019Brien subsequently represented the accused.<\/p>\n<p>Mr O\u2019Brien asked Judge Daly if she would consider accepting plea to a lesser charge of careless driving and said Cummings would undertake the ProSocial Driving Course.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is a very young man who has never come to any other adverse attention,\u201d Mr O\u2019Brien said. \u201cHe accepts that this was a momentary lapse of judgement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr O\u2019Brien said that Cummings had written a letter of apology which he described as \u201cvery sincere\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-sans font-semibold text-xl md:text-[30px] leading-9 text-primary w-full\">\n        You may also be interested in\n    <\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/lead-stories\/road-closed-following-incident-in-ballybofey-633716\" class=\"block w-2\/5 shrink-0\" aria-label=\"Road closed following incident in Ballybofey\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/road-closed-following-incident-in-ballybofey.jpg\" class=\"max-w-full w-full h-full object-contain relative z-10\" width=\"150\" height=\"84\"  alt=\"Road closed following incident in Ballybofey\" \/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/lead-stories\/donegal-gardai-granted-extension-period-to-question-suspect-633708\" class=\"block w-2\/5 shrink-0\" aria-label=\"Donegal Gardai granted extension period to question suspect\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/donegal-gardai-granted-extension-period-to-question-suspect.jpg\" class=\"max-w-full w-full h-full object-contain relative z-10\" width=\"150\" height=\"84\"  alt=\"Donegal Gardai granted extension period to question suspect\" \/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>However, Judge Daly said that a speed of 166km\/h was \u201cway beyond\u201d consideration for a reduction to a careless driving charge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSpeed is what is killing people,\u201d Judge Daly said. \u201cIt is just too fast.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr O\u2019Brien asked if the court would reconsider the position and added: \u201cThere is no \u2018good\u2019 dangerous<br \/>driving case. He overlooked his decision making at the time. He fully accepts that he was wrong.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis would have a significant impact on his life. That is a difficulty that he has placed upon himself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr O\u2019Brien asked if the court would consider that Cummings could \u201cdo everything right and engage fully\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Daly referred the matter to another judge at a future sitting of a District Court in Donegal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A District Court judge has refused an application to reduce a charge of dangerous driving by a young&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-446400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}