A 35-year-old married father of two has been remanded in custody after leading Gardai in Longford on a chase which lasted almost forty minutes earlier this week.
William Lawrence, of Cloncovid, Kilcogy, Cavan, was charged with multiple road offences, including six counts of dangerous driving, following a series of incidents on Monday of this week.
Mullingar district Court heard that Gardai in Longford received reports on Monday afternoon that a person was driving erratically in the town.
They subsequently attempted to stop the vehicle on the Ballinalee Road, but it fled the scene.
During the attempt to stop the vehicle one officer put his hand in the drivers window to try and grab the keys from the ignition, but suffered a broken wrist as the car escaped into the Ardnacassa area of housing estates.
The car eventually came to a stop after it drove into a wall outside Longford Women's Link with Sgt Jarlath Nohilly explaining that there were no break marks before the collision and garda suspected that the accused did not see the wall before the impact.
The court heard he suffered serious injuries , including a dislocated hip and a broken ankle as a result of the crash.
22 empty beer cans were found in a car and the accused refused to give a sample to assess his blood alcohol level.
The accused told Gardai he drove to Longford to see his brother as he was feeling a bit depressed but when he failed to meet him he began drinking.
He was charged with six counts of dangerous driving, failure to have insurance or his driving licence, as well as a drive off offence at a petrol station in Ballinalee earlier on Monday.
He made no response when charged at 1.40am this morning.
He was refused bail after a number of Garda objections and was remanded in custody to Cloverhill District Court next Tuesday.
