A French tourist has been fined €750 in relation to a collision that left a man and woman with serious injuries last year.
The head on crash occurred at Carragartha, Castleblayney on April 20th, 2024.
28 year old Thomas Peixoto of 9 Impasse Des Platanes, France, pleaded guilty at a previous sitting to two counts of careless driving causing serious bodily harm. Last month the French man appeared before Monaghan District Court in relation to these charges.
Judge Raymond Finnegan heard yesterday that the accused was not in court but had been very remorseful following the incident. The judge heard that Mr Peixoto had travelled to Ireland last year on holidays with his family and had rented a car.
The 28 year old had never driven on the left of the road before and about 5 minutes away from the Airbnb that they were staying at in Co Monaghan, the collision occurred. The court was told that when he turned right onto the road at the townland of Carragartha, he went over on to the wrong side of the road.
He was travelling from the Cullaville area to Castleblayney and was attempting to cross a major road when his car collided head on,
The level of inexperience of driving on the left of the road was the main contributing factor to this collision. Mr Peixoto who was said to be very sorry for his actions was fined €750 and given five months to pay the amount.
