A 21-year-old woman who pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the deaths of a mother and daughter has been given a three-year suspended sentence and banned from driving for 15 years.
Susan Gleeson of Leitrim, Kilworth, Co Cork, pleaded guilty earlier this month to dangerous driving causing the deaths of her neighbours, Geraldine (58) and Louise Clancy (22) at Ballyderown, Kilworth, on December 22nd, 2015.
The two women died when their car overturned into a flooded ditch just off the Fermoy-Ballyduff Road following a collision with a car driven by Gleeson.
Noel Clancy told the sentencing hearing at Cork Circuit Criminal Court that he raced to the scene of the two-car crash near his home without realising that his wife and daughter were involved.
“When the firemen pulled them from the car, I did not recognise them. They were blue and purple form the cold water. It was only after I read the number plate of the car, that I knew it was Geraldine and Louise,” he said in his victim impact statement.
Sgt John McNamara told how Ms Clancy was driving her daughter from their home into Fermoy when they were hit by Gleeson’s car as she came out of a side road in third gear onto the main Fermoy-Ballyduff Road.
Sgt McNamara said Ms Clancy was 100 per cent blameless in the collision as she was driving on the correct side of the road when Gleeson came out from the minor road without stopping and swung on to the incorrect side hitting Ms Clancy’s car.
Dr Jason Van Der Velde pronounced both Ms Clancy and her daughter dead at the scene and a postmortem examination confirmed that both drowned.
Sgt McNamara said gardaí had fully investigated the collision and Gleeson was driving on her own on a learner permit in contravention of Section 42 of the Road Traffic Act which required her to be accompanied by a full licence holder.
She had been breathalysed and no traces of alcohol or drugs were found in her system but she admitted to gardaí that her mind was elsewhere approaching the junction.
“I didn’t have my full concentration – my mind was on a dental appointment . . . I genuinely believed I could make the turn safely,” said Gleeson who put the mistake down to her inexperience, having only got the learner permit in February 2015 and completed nine of 12 compulsory driving lessons.
Gleeson broke down as she listened to victim impact statements from the Clancy family and she was still crying when she entered the witness box to apologise to her near neighbours – they live 600m away – for the hurt and heartache that she had caused them.
“I feel so sorry for the Clancy family and the devastation I have caused them – I wish I could turn back the clock and replace their lives – . . . I never meant anything to happen, there are no words to express my remorse – I am so sorry,” said Gleeson who had gone to school with Louise Clancy.
Freak circumstances
Defence counsel, Jim O’Mahony SC urged Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin not to impose a custodial sentence, saying that there were a freak set of circumstances in that the Clancys car went through the only gap in the wall and fell into a dyke which was only flooded because of the heavy rains.
He said people make mistakes while driving all the time but not with the devastating consequences that had resulted from Gleeson’s error of judgement. “There but for the grace of God go thousands s of drivers,” he said, pointing out that Gleeson had no previous convictions of any kind.
The judge said that he had listened carefully to the victim impact statements of Mr Clancy and his other children, Fiona and Declan but as Mr Clancy had noted, there was no sentence that the court could impose which would compensate for their loss.
“Undoubtedly the lives of the Clancy family have been devastated as a result of this tragedy and everyone has to be moved by the intensity and enormity of their grief following their loss . . . they have been stretched to the limits of endurance,” he said.
“The victims were innocently doing what they were doing – they were driving along properly when they were visited by this tragedy and I acknowledge that Mr Clancy’s distress is properly characterised by a sense of anger and that anger is justified.”
He noted that Gleeson had gone through a Yield sign without stopping and lost control of the car and crossed over to the wrong side of the road while she was also driving on a learner permit without being accompanied by a full licence holder as required by law.
However, she had pleaded guilty, was genuinely remorseful, and had no previous convictions while the case was also notable for the absence of aggravating factors such as drink, excessive speed or her being on her mobile phone.
He said that in the circumstances he would not impose a custodial sentence and instead gave Gleeson a three-year suspended sentence and a 15-year driving ban.
