A Circuit Court judge said potholes caused a head-on collision in which a couple were injured, resulting in the stillbirth of their son.
At Dundalk Circuit Court, Judge Pat McCartan criticised the local authority, and said the way it had left the stretch of road "was a disgrace". He asked why it had not placed cones to mark the dangers until after the accident.
He made his comments to the jury before it retired to consider if Gerard Owens, Cregg, Nobber, Co Meath, was guilty of dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm to Colm and Deirdre Gribben, Newry, Co Down, at Shanliss, Ardee, on August, 18th, 2003. The jury took 16 minutes to return a unanimous verdict of not guilty.
In his charge to the jury, Judge McCartan said: "There is no doubt potholes caused the car to go out of control."
He continued by saying that the dangers on the road were "completely unmarked". Why did the local authority not put cones on the road until afterwards "so this appalling accident could have been avoided".
The head-on collision between the defendant's Fiat Punto and the couple's Audi A4 took place on a minor road that traffic using the N52, the main Ardee to Kells road, had been diverted on to because of roadworks.
Witnesses said the Punto had hit a ditch on its side of the road before going out of control, crossing the road and hitting the Audi. A motorist behind the Audi said the Punto had been driving normally until its wheel got caught in a trench on the left- hand side.
Garda Adrian Tucker, a road accident investigator and a witness for the State, said there were a number of defects over a 90-metre stretch of the road, including potholes, cavities and cracks in its surface.
Yesterday Denis Wood, a forensic engineer, called for the defence, said Mr Owens was driving close to his left-hand side when he effectively ran out of road because its width narrowed from 2.9m to 1.9m.
He estimated that the combined speed of both cars at the time of the collision was between 80mph and 90mph.
At the edge of the road surface you could "see a clear drop, for all the world a man-made edge", so the road was left with a sharp sudden edge, "and in addition local subsidence had occurred", he said. The road surface resulted in the left-hand wheel of the car "dropping down", and it was when Mr Owens attempted to bring it back out of there that he lost control.
After the verdict the judge said: "There are others who ought to answer for what occurred this dreadful day."