The Dublin bus crash trial reached its final stage yesterday with the prosecution telling the jury that the most likely cause of the crash was the driver putting his foot on the accelerator rather than the brake.
However, a defence lawyer returned to evidence that unexpected power surges could occur in such buses, and said there had been a "debacle" in the prosecution's presentation of technical evidence.
The jury in the trial of the bus driver accused of dangerous driving causing death at Wellington Quay three years ago is expected to begin its deliberations this morning at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Kenneth Henvey (51), of Whitethorn Crescent, Palmerstown, has denied dangerous driving causing the deaths of two men and three women on February 21st, 2004.
Judge Michael White, in charging the jury, described the trial as long, complicated and emotive. He told the jury it had heard of an everyday event of people shopping in Dublin city centre, of a bus pulling in and then tragedy striking.
He said the incident had affected people's lives forever and that trauma had been suffered by the victims, the injured, the families of the dead, witnesses and by Mr Henvey and his family. Sympathy had been aroused for all involved but such sympathy, along with any strong views jury members might hold, must be set aside.
Judge White said it was open to the jury to return a verdict of not guilty of dangerous driving but guilty of careless driving.
He defined dangerous driving as driving in a manner in which any reasonable motorist would in all circumstances recognise as creating a serious risk to the public.
Patrick McGrath, prosecuting, said in closing the case that the obvious explanation for the incident was that Mr Henvey put his foot on the accelerator rather than the brake. There was no scientific basis to support the theory by the defence that the bus had experienced a power surge.
He said even if there had been a power surge, the bus would have stopped if Mr Henvey had put his foot on the brake.
Mr McGrath said the time it took Mr Henvey to react was clearly above the length of time any reasonable driver would have taken. This failure to act was "inexcusable" and, coupled with Mr Henvey's foot hitting the accelerator, constituted dangerous driving.
Patrick Gageby SC, defending, said that to convict, the jury would have to go beyond reasonable doubt and find the incident was a result of pure driver error. To do this the jury would have to accept the technical data which the prosecution said indicated there was no power surge.
Referring to inaccurate data retracted by the prosecution, Mr Gageby said there had been a substantial attempt to sanitise the disaster of last week's evidence.
The jury earlier heard evidence of technical information supposedly downloaded from the engine of the bus before the Swedish engineer who had compiled the data realised it was mixed up with data from a South African bus. The mistake was explained to the jury and new data was presented.
Mr Gageby said the prosecution only realised there was a problem with the data supplied by Volvo, the makers of the engine on Mr Henvey's bus, after an expert witness for the defence had given evidence.
He told the jury that no one on the prosecution side had understood the data and had blindly accepted figures that were later found to be inaccurate.
He said a power surge would have resulted from a "classic intermittent fault" which came and went without leaving a sign it had occurred.
He pointed to evidence of other drivers who had experienced power surges on a Waterford bus which, when examined, did not show any sign of a fault.
Mr Gageby said at the time of the incident Mr Henvey was sober, jovial, on no medication, in no hurry and rested. He had not suffered a nervous breakdown, was not experiencing family difficulties and had played with his grandchild earlier that morning.
He said his client was a trained driver of good character. He asked the jury why the bus would have careered off for over 28 metres if something odd had not happened. That it took so long for the bus to stop was indicative that something unusual had occurred.
He pointed to the evidence of Patrick O'Leary, a truck driver, who said he saw the bus experience an "unnatural acceleration".
Mr Gageby said the bus had surged forward to the amazement of his client, and said the reason it had turned left on to the pavement was an issue "which still perplexes Mr Henvey to this day".
Judge White yesterday began summarising the evidence for the jury and is expected to finish his charge and send it to begin deliberations this morning.