Officer in court after PSNI pair injured in road smash

Officer in court after PSNI pair injured in road smash

21 June 2017

A POLICE officer has appeared in court accused of causing grievous bodily injury to two colleagues during a blue light response to an incident outside a Newcastle pub.

Rob Keogh, with an address care of Woodburn Police Station, Belfast, denies causing grievous bodily injury by careless driving to the two police officers.

The accident happened as they drove in two separate cars along Shimna Road towards Main Street after receiving a request for urgent assistance in the early hours of May 25, 2015.

Downpatrick Court heard on Monday that Keogh was one of several police officers to respond to the emergency call, driving the first of two vehicles from Newcastle police station at around 12.45am.

The prosecution case is that Keogh caused the accident by swerving into the path of the other car and braking so sharply the following police car was unable to avoid the collision.

A specialist road traffic investigator, who flew from England to give evidence, told the court that analysis of data from both police vehicles showed the impact happened when Keogh’s vehicle, which was a liveried police car, was struck from behind.

He said the two cars had been travelling at between 70mph and 77mph before the accident but the impact happened when Keogh was driving at 27mph and the second car was at a speed of 47mph.

The officer who was driving the second vehicle, which was unmarked, told the court Keogh was in the left hand lane, while he followed in the right lane. He estimated he was about three car lengths behind the defendant when his passenger colleague shouted a warning, he saw red brake lights in front and Keogh turned sharply into his path.

“I stood on the brakes and unfortunately there was no distance for our vehicle to avoid a collision,” he said.

“I was quite dazed. The shock and speed of the impact was significant and I heard an extremely loud female screaming beside the vehicle and my first thought was that we had ploughed through a group of pedestrians.”

He said he had not expected a “fellow trained police driver” to brake and “shoot across” in front of him.

He told the court he was now classed as “permanently disabled” and had been unfit for operational duties since the accident.

The second injured officer, who was the second vehicle’s passenger, told the court he remembered both police cars travelling in the right hand lane.

“As Keogh approached Shimna Vale he braked sharply and turned to the right. I knew there was going to be a collision, he was in the same lane in front of us. It was so quick,” he said.

“There was no warning, it was a sudden unexpected manoeuvre which gave us nowhere to go.

“We careered along the Shimna Road until the vehicle stopped.

“Due to the nature of the call, a police trained driver should have been capable enough of knowing police vehicles coming behind need adequate warning of what is coming behind rather than making a split second decision. He veered left and pulled right across us, I will never forget it.”

The police officer told the court he had undergone extensive back surgery following the accident, but said his back pain was still not controlled.

The case will continue later in the summer, pending the completion of a medical report for one of the injured officers.