Cork gardaí arrest speeding drug driver and find a stash of fireworks in car boot

GARDAÍ on duty in North Cork over on bank-holiday Monday got plenty of bang for their buck after they stopped a speeding car.

Members of the Mitchelstown-based Roads Policing Unit clocked the car rocketing along at a breathtaking 153kph and pulled the driver over to check their identity using their mobility device.

“The traffic lads have short fuse when it comes to road safety so stopped the driver to verify their identity using our mobility device,” read a post on the Garda Cork, Kerry & Limerick Southern Region Facebook page.

“With these (devices) we can check instantly if the diver has anything outstanding, which their driving clear wasn’t,” it added.

The driver was detained after failing a roadside drug test and during a follow-up search of the vehicle Gardaí discovered a stash of fireworks in the boot.

“If this driver’s bank-holiday weekend went of with a bang, their failed roadside drug test ensured it was quickly turning into a damp squib,” quipped the post.

“An investigation file will now be prepared in relation to the road traffic offences and, as with the fireworks, they won’t be let off,” it added.

Under Irish law an import licence is required for all fireworks and it is an offence to possesses unlicensed fireworks (other than low hazard fireworks, such as party poppers, sparklers and so on), with intent to sell or supply.

Stiff penalties including fines of up to €10,000 and/or up to five-years in prison can be imposed on those caught with, and convicted of, possessing unlicensed fireworks.

While a serious matter, the detection of the fireworks went down well with social media users, with one person commenting, ‘brilliant. Thank you for removing those fireworks. They are such a danger to humans and animal in particular’.

Others appreciated the somewhat light-hearted tone of the Garda post ,with one person adding a pun of their own saying the motorist was ‘not the brightest of sparks….they will sulphur the consequences’.

Another post read ‘brilliant coverage. Whoever is in charge of the social media aspect needs to have a word with yer skipper about a serious raise. Ye are absolutely wasted’.

Replying to that the author of the Garda post simply replied, ‘completely agree’.