This week's other motoring news in brief
Councils resist road rulings
THE CORONER for south Mayo is to appeal a High Court direction that he reconsider his decision not to include a Health and Safety Authority report on road conditions among the evidence at an inquest into a young woman’s death in a crash.
The HSA report concluded the road surface was a contributory cause of the crash that claimed the life of Aisling Gallagher (22) in Co Mayo. Mayo County Council has disputed this finding and denies any liability.
At a hearing in March, Mr Justice Liam McKechnie overturned the decision by south Mayo coroner John O’Dwyer to exclude the HSA report from Ms Gallagher’s inquest, describing this approach as “legally incorrect”.
The Gallagher family, of Askill, Bunacurry, Achill, Co Mayo, brought the case challenging the Coroner’s decision.
In recent weeks the Chief State Solicitor wrote to the legal representatives of the Gallagher family outlining 12 grounds for an appeal of this decision to the Supreme Court.
Among these are that the court failed to recognise that the Coroner had acted within his powers under the Coroners Act (1962) and that the ruling failed to respect the principle that the Coroner decides which witnesses to call.
Price conPrice confirmed for Nissan Leaf
NISSAN HAS confirmed the Irish retail price for its electric family car.
Going on sale next February, the Leaf will retail for €29,995 after taking the €5,000 Government incentive offered on all electric vehicles into account.
There was a lot of speculation about whether the expensive lithium-ion batteries would be sold separately, or leased to owners over the car’s lifetime, but Nissan has opted to sell the car as a complete unit, complete with battery.
That means there will be no separate monthly battery leasing charges and the Japanese firm estimates the average annual running costs for the car to be about €232, or less than €20 per month.
GM posts first profits since 2007
GENERAL MOTORS has posted its first quarter profit since 2007 as demand steadied in the US and sales boomed in China, a turnaround the automaker said could put it on track for its first full-year profit since 2004.
Analysts said the results underscored the progress GM made by slashing costs in a bankruptcy funded by the Obama administration and kept open the prospect of the automaker launching an initial public offering as soon as this year.
GM posted a net profit of $865 million, compared with a loss of $5.98 billion a year before, as it ramped up production by nearly 57 per cent from year-earlier levels.
Listen Up!
On this week’s Motors podcast, produced in association with Bridgestone, we assess the long-running debate over our registration system that creates a lopsided new car market and silly social status issues. Plus we review the initial prices for Nissan’s new electric car, and our in-car road test review is with the new Mazda6.
Listen to the latest show at irishtimes.com/motors/podcast