PSNI officer cleared of injuring colleagues in high-speed smash

PSNI officer cleared of injuring colleagues in high-speed smash

20 September 2017

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

Constable Rob Keogh had denied causing grievous bodily injury by careless driving to the two police officers during an incident in the resort on May 25, 2015. The second day of Mr Keogh’s trial at Downpatrick Court took place on Tuesday.

The court had previously heard that Mr Keogh drove the first of two vehicles from Newcastle police station seconds after receiving a call for urgent assistance from a distressed female colleague in the early hours of the morning.

As the cars rushed to respond to the incident on Main Street, an accident occurred at around 12.45am as the officers drove in two cars along Shimna Road.

The contest, which opened in Downpatrick in June, heard the cars were involved in a dramatic collision when Mr Keogh attempted to make a right turn into Shimna Vale.

The “speed and suddenness” of this manoeuvre was at the heart of the prosecution case with the two officers in the second vehicle telling the court that Constable Keogh gave no warning about his intention to turn and no time to avoid the collision, which left both officers with serious injuries and one with permanent disability.

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

“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.

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

However, giving his own evidence about the moments before the crash in court last week, Mr Keogh said he gave “plenty of notice” and had indicated before making the turn, which was backed up by independent evidence taken from a black box recorder within his car.

He said he had always intended to take the short cut through Shimna Vale and denied it was a last minute decision.

“I would not have made that manoeuvre if I knew it was going to be careless or dangerous,” he said.

“I was confident in my abilities and that I would be able to make that manoeuvre safely.” Mr Keogh, who remembered checking his mirrors immediately before the collision, said he presumed they had been 

hit by a device when he regained consciousness after the accident.

Describing the case as “unfortunate”, District Judge Amanda Brady said police often had to respond to difficult and dangerous calls and were expected to do so by the public.

“They were responding to a female officer who appeared to be in some distress and I do not think anybody would fault them for that,” she said.

Ms Brady said she was concerned with an inconsistency in the prosecution evidence, and specifically by claims that Constable Keogh made “an unexpected sudden manoeuvre” that “left us with no place to go”.

Despite the speed of both vehicles, which were travelling between 70-77mph, she said the evidence of an independent expert showed that Mr Keogh had indicated for seven seconds, or for 100-150 metres, before the turn was attempted.

She added that evidence about skid marks on the road which had originally been attributed to the crash, brought to court at the last minute, had made a “material change” in the case. 

“This is not a criticism,” she said.

“I think the officers were dealing with a very difficult situation. They were driving fast, and I do not criticise them for that, but I cannot be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Constable Keogh’s driving was careless,” she said.

Dismissing the charges against Mr Keogh, whose address was given as Woodburn Police Station, she said she believed the case would have been better dealt with at a civil court.