Firm fined after driver breached rest regulations

A coach company has received a total of €5,000 in fines, with a bus driver in the company’s employment receiving a further €750 fine after a judge heard evidence of a “very serious” breach of rest day regulations.

The Road Safety Authority brought prosecutions against Hennessy Coaches Ltd, with an address at Shurock, Moate, County Westmeath, and its employee Adam Stecura (62), with an address at Meadow Hill, Marlton Road, Balynerrin, Co Wicklow, for offences in July of last year.

Mr Stecura, a bus driver, was charged with failing to commence a weekly rest period, and failing to use a record sheet or driver card on each day he drove the vehicle.

The company faced charges of failing to organise Mr Stecura’s work in such a way that he was able to comply with regulations, failing to ensure the correct functioning and proper use of a digital tachography, and failing to ensure that all data from the bus was downloaded every 90 days.

At a sitting of Roscommon District Court, Judge James Faughnan heard evidence of how an RSA inspector approached the bus, which was stationary at Killeenreevagh on the N61 on July 28, 2025.

The 51-seater bus had a number of tourists on board and the inspector informed the court that there had been no driver card or recording equipment used on board to ensure regulations were complied with.

Mr Stecura initially told the inspector that someone else had driven the bus to that location the previous day and he had taken over, but later admitted that he had been driving on the day in question and for a total of 20 consecutive days.

The inspector prohibited him from driving the vehicle for 90 hours and the company sent a replacement driver to continue the tour.

On September 8, 2025, the RSA inspector visited Hennessy Coaches Ltd by appointment and met with David Hennessy, the company director and transport manager.

He was told that Mr Stecura had commenced a 12-day tour and that he had driven with no driver card inserted. The driver had also been invoicing for relief days as well as work days and he had been driving for a total of 20 consecutive days.

The court heard that Mr Stecura’s case of 20 consecutive days behind the wheel was “probably one of the worst” cases of breaching regulations the RSA inspector had ever seen.

Solicitor Patrick Carty, representing both the company and the driver, stated Hennessy Coaches had since invested a total of €30,000 into installing cameras and trackers on their buses.

Mr Hennessy told Mr Carty that he was not as attentive in July of last year as he normally would have been.

Mr Stecura has been driving professionally for 40 years and has lived in Ireland for 25 years, with no previous convictions, “not even a road traffic conviction”.

“He understands what happened here can’t happen again,” said Mr Carty.

Both the company and Mr Stecura pleaded guilty to all charges in July. Judge Faughnan, having heard the evidence, said that the case was “very serious”.

“I’ve seen videos online where people fall asleep and crash vehicles,” he said.

“I note that €30,000 has been expended to make sure this doesn’t happen again, but even once is too much.”

With that in mind, he proceeded to fine the company €2,500 for failing to authorise work, and a further €2,500 for failing to download the necessary data from the bus. The charge of failure to ensure the correct use of a digital tachograph was taken into consideration.

Mr Stecura himself “knows well what the law was and worked his way around it”, said Judge Faughnan, fining the driver €750 for failing to commence a weekly rest period no later than at the end of six 24-hour periods from the end of the previously weekly rest period.

He took the charge of failure to use a record sheet or driver card on each day of driving into consideration

He concluded by saying the offences were “too serious” not to warrant hefty fines.

Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme