A driver who left a musician with lifelong catastrophic injuries after hitting him as he crossed the road on his way home from work has been jailed for six months.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard the driver, Mihail Trofim (27), failed to appear for finalisation of sentencing earlier this year. A bench warrant was issued in April, executed by arrangement in September and sentencing adjourned to yesterday.
The victim, who attended court on each sentence date in a wheelchair, required emergency life-saving surgery, was unconscious for 14 weeks after the crash and still doesn’t remember the two years before it.
He has been left with a brain injury and can no longer play his musical instruments or paint.
RM Block
In a victim impact statement read on behalf of his mother, the court was told the victim feels “robbed of the life he had” and trapped.
“I’m encapsulated in a body that doesn’t work as it should,” the victim said. “I’m no longer able to do the things that made me happy.”
Trofim pleaded guilty to careless driving causing serious bodily harm on June 8th, 2022, at the Old Navan Road, Blanchardstown.
Trofim, of The Copse, Citywest Demesne, Tallaght, also pleaded guilty to having no insurance on the day. The court heard that he had purchased insurance from a broker who had defrauded him.
Judge Martin Nolan heard evidence in the case last April and adjourned the case overnight to consider sentence. The following day the court was told Trofim had attended hospital due to a medical condition. Gardaí made enquiries and could not locate him.
Judge Nolan then issued a bench warrant for Trofim. The bench warrant was executed in September after Trofim made contact with gardaí.
On Monday, Judge Nolan said Trofim “did not have the courage or gumption to show up” to court on the sentencing date and should have made immediate arrangements to turn up, rather than months after the date. He said this was an aggravating factor.
He said he had caused the injured party and his family extra stress and trauma by the way he dealt with the court process.
In relation to the driving, he said Trofim was travelling somewhat faster than he should have been, as well as driving into low-lying sun. He noted the place where the injured party crossed was not an authorised crossing place.
He said Trofim should have been more cautious in the way he proceeded but obviously did not expect a pedestrian to be crossing at that point.
He said the victim’s injuries were devastating and he will have to live with them for the rest of his life. He noted the man’s very supportive family would also suffer as burdens like this are shared.
He said he had come to the conclusion the Trofim deserved a custodial sentence. He imposed a six-month custodial sentence and disqualified him from driving for five years.
Judge Nolan extended his sympathies to the injured man and his family.
