An expert defence witness in the trial of a Dublin Bus driver accused of dangerous driving causing the deaths of five people on Wellington Quay three years ago has queried new technical evidence produced by the prosecution.
Dr Denis Woods is giving evidence on behalf of 51-year-old Kenneth Henvey from Palmerstown in Dublin, who has pleaded not guilty.
The new technical evidence was provided after it emerged that previous technical data given to the jury was seriously inaccurate.
Both sets of figures were provided by an engineer in Volvo in Sweden.
This morning, Dr Woods, an engineer and expert in accident investigation, said there were some anomalies in the new figures that raised doubts for him about their accuracy.
He pointed out differences between the engine hours and mileage recorded in the data compared to the figures recorded by garda investigators in the days after the collision.
Dr Woods also said the new figures showed that the engine of the bus driven by Mr Henvey had experienced engine speed surges for 58 minutes and 31 seconds of its operating life.
He said the figures were not proof that abnormal operation had not occurred.
Dr Woods said his interpretation of the data was that the engine could have experienced up to 60 seconds of abnormal operation without it showing up in the figures provided by Volvo.
He said a power surge would last only two to three seconds and he said hypothetically you could have up to 20 power surges lasting three seconds each without them showing up in these figures.
Dr Woods said this called into serious question the accuracy of all the technical data downloaded from the bus driven by Mr Henvey.
In cross-examination, Dr Woods rejected suggestions that he was misreading the Volvo data or that he did not understand Volvo's engine control system.
He agreed there was no evidence that the bus had had a power surge on the day of the accident.
But he said there was no evidence either that it had not.
It was also put to Dr Woods by the prosecution that if Mr Henvey had had his foot on the accelerator of the bus accidentally, that would explain everything that happened.
Dr Woods said it would not explain the speed of the bus.
