Dangerous Driving Irish Style?

Originally published: 20 Feb 07. In Dublin today, a jury has begun deliberating at the trial of Kenneth Henvey. He is a bus driver who is on trial for dangerous driving. His bus went out of control at a place called Wellington Quay and killed 5 pedestrians.
The case of the Wellington Quay bus accident three years ago is a tragic one and only the deepest sympathy can be felt for all those affected; however in reading the news stories that abound I can't help getting an uneasy feeling that the driver is facing prosecution due to the consequences of the accident and not the circumstances of the accident. It seems the bus driver came on shift, sat in the seat and stood on the accelerator pedal instead of the brake pedal while preparing to move off.
The bus careered forward out of control for about 8.5 seconds and killed 5 people at the bus stop, however a Garda Kelly, in giving evidence (to quote the story above) felt that the driver should have been able to get the bus under control within 2 seconds.
And that is the hub of the prosecution's case! Patrick McGrath BL, prosecuting told the jury that the length of time it took Mr Henvey to react was clearly above the length of time any reasonable driver would have taken. He said that this failure to react was ‘inexcusable' and coupled with Mr Henvey's foot hitting the accelerator constituted dangerous driving. ‘inexcusable'? Is he suggesting that the driver made a conscious effort not to get the bus under control? Well God help us all because it now seems you can be tried for not having Top Gun pilot reactions. The fact that this case has come to court must surely be a cause for reflection on the Irish Legal System and indirectly on the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell.
Apparently this man is on trial because his reactions were not quick enough DURING an ‘out of control' panic situation.
While I don't have a legal definition of ‘dangerous driving', surely the case the defendant must answer is ‘was I driving dangerously up to the point that control was lost'. And it seems according to the news stories that the ONLY driving act Mr Henvey actually did was to step on the accelerator peddle by mistake when we was trying to step on the brake.
UPDATE 21st Feb: It took the jury 4 hours of deliberation in order to acquit Mr Henvey. However in order to reach this verdict the jury was required to formally acknowledge that a ‘power surge' COULD have happened despite concrete evidence from the prosecution that no power surges took place. It sounds like the jury ignored the evidence and did the RIGHT thing; there was no case to answer here and the jury took the only common sense option left open. My only hope is that I never find myself in the dock facing serious charges because my instinctive reaction times are not quick enough..... and it is only HOPE that will save me because it seems our legal system will afford me no protection.