Teacher prosecuted over serious road collision in County Limerick has driving ban halved
A TEACHER from County Limerick whose careless driving caused serious harm and led to the "gravest consequences" for another motorist has had her four-year driving ban halved by the Court of Appeal,
In a decision handed down this Thursday, the three-judge court found the sentencing practice relating to mandatory bans for first time offenders was flawed.
Norma Kiely of Coolaboy, Dromcollogher was a 24-year-old college student when she was involved in a head-on collision with another motorist and had been originally charged with dangerous driving causing serious harm arising from a collision in Limerick in April 2018.
However, she pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of careless driving causing serious harm which was accepted by the State.
She received a one-year suspended sentence, was fined €5,000 and received a four-year driving ban from Judge Patrick Meghan sitting at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court in October 2021.
The male driver of another car had to be air-lifted to hospital following the head-on collision which occurred at Clonmore, Dromcollogher, County Limerick, on April 11, 2018.
The two-car collision occurred shortly after 4.30pm on the R522 regional road between Dromcollogher and Feohanagh.
Ms Kiely appealed the severity of the driving ban but not the suspended sentence nor the fine.
At the Court of Appeal, Liam Carroll BL submitted the sentencing judge was under the impression that a driving ban was mandatory, which was not the case for first-time offenders.
In a separate case last December, the Court of Appeal found that the law does not require a mandatory driving ban for those convicted of careless driving causing death or serious harm if it is their first offence.
Mr Carroll said his client, who had apologised in writing, has no previous convictions, is a qualified secondary school teacher and is working abroad.
He said Ms Kiely had served her suspended sentence, was fully insured and licenced at the time and that there had been no issue regarding the vehicle's roadworthiness.
In halving the length of the ban, Mr Justice George Birmingham, presiding, said it appeared the sentencing judge was operating on the basis that there was a mandatory ban of four years involved after Ms Kiely's guilty plea to careless driving causing serious harm.
He said there was no criticism of the sentencing judge as he was acting on what appeared to be established law at the time but that this subsequently turned out to be an error of law.
Mr Justice Birmingham added that, in fact, the decision regarding any disqualification was a matter for the sentencing judge's discretion.
The judge commented that the offence was a "significant" one involving a "considerable lack of attentiveness that led to consequences of the gravest kind for the unfortunate victim of this accident, whose whole life has been turned upside down".
However, he said that even if the ban was not mandatory in nature it was a case where a disqualification had to be considered.
Mr Justice Birmingham said the Court of Appeal would therefore substitute the four-year ban and put in place a two-year ban.
The court did not intervene regarding the suspended sentence or fine.