Tense road rage dashcam footage shown to Kildare court

Dashcam footage of an argument between two motorists that quickly became heated was shown to those who appeared in Naas District Court on Thursday, March 2.

The footage showed Shane O’Brien, of Carrigreen, Baltinglass, County Wicklow, becoming angry towards another motorist at Walterstown in Nurney on June 29, 2019.

The 40-year-old was in the car with his partner at the time and his mother when he overtook another man on a narrow country road.

After the back of his car was hit by the injured party, Mr O’Brien could be seen angrily storming out, and although both parties disappeared from view in the final seconds of the footage, loud screaming and swearing could be heard from the men and women present.

A number of attendants in court gasped and could be heard passing comments when this happened.

Mr O’Brien contested the dangerous driving charge against him.

Judge Desmond Zaidan was told that both Mr O’ Brien and the injured party called the gardaí on each other.

Mr O’Brien was insistent that he was not at fault over the incident, but the garda who attended the scene told the court that 'it was clear to see' the injured party was driving normally in the footage.

When the injured party took to the stand, he alleged that Mr O’Brien opened his car door, allegedly assaulted him, and grabbed his car keys and threw them away.

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Despite these accusations, Mr O’Brien did not face any assault or theft charges, as the injured party did not wish to make a complaint about the alleged offences.

When he was asked by Judge Zaidan why he chose not to make an official complaint about these alleged offences, he said: "I just wanted it over and done with, I didn’t want to get anyone in trouble."

Mr O'Brien admitted that while he took the injured party’s keys away from him at one point, he was adamant that he never assaulted him.

After a lengthy cross-examination process between both the defence and prosecution, Judge Zaidan said that the State proved 'beyond any reasonable doubt' that Mr O’ Brien was at fault.

He criticised Mr O’Brien for showing a lack of remorse during the case, adding: "I’m surprised that this is even contested, you have no defence whatsoever, Mr O’ Brien."

It was heard that Mr O’ Brien has nine previous convictions, including one for dangerous driving, which was reduced to careless driving, in 2013, and assault causing harm in 2008.

The case will return to the court on March 9, which is when sentencing is due to be finalised by Judge Zaidan.