A driver who was almost four times over the legal blood alcohol limit when he hit two cyclists from behind, causing them very serious injuries, has had a €20,000 fine added to his sentence.
The case of Muiris Flynn went to the Court of Criminal Appeal after the DPP claimed his sentence was unduly lenient after he was convicted on charges of dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm.
Flynn, Meadow Bank, Geevagh, Co Sligo was initially
jailed for four years, with the final 2½ years suspended for dangerous driving
causing serious bodily harm and was also banned from driving for eight years.
He was convicted on other charges - drink driving and
driving without insurance - for which he received a four-month sentence and two
three-year driver disqualifications. That jail time and the disqualifications
were served at the same time as the longer sentence and longer driving ban.
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By the time the case went back to the Court of Criminal
Appeal 31-year-old Flynn had been released from his prison sentence and had
found a job.
The Court of Criminal Appeal has now found the sentence was unduly lenient but it opted against imposing more jail time, which would have seen Flynn sent back to prison. Instead, it imposed a €20,000 fine on him.
Stickybottle reported on the crash at the time, in September 2017, when Flynn hit two female cyclists - members of Lough Key Triathlon Club - from behind.
The two injured riders were part of a three-person group out training at Doon, north Roscommon, on a Sunday morning ride.
Flynn pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm. He stopped at the scene of the crash and offered what help he could.
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Gardai said he also admitted he had been drinking the
previous night. He was arrested at the scene and an alcohol test showed he had
80mg of alcohol per 100mls of breath.
The court was told the three victims were out training at
the time of the crash and were cycling in single file.
They were wearing brightly coloured high visibility
clothing when the crash occurred at about 9.30am on Sunday, September 24th,
2017.
One of the cyclists was left with a broken pelvis and broken leg. The other injured rider suffered a broken back. The third woman with them was uninjured.
Both injured women also sustained abrasions and other soft tissue injuries and in their victim impact statement at the time of Flynn's sentencing the court was told one of them prayed at the scene as she believed she was about to die.
They are both mothers with young families, both continued to suffer psychologically and physically and neither has returned to the working lives they had at the time of the crash.
One of the cyclists was thrown up into the air when hit
from behind while the other was thrown onto an embankment.
In a victim impact statement one of the riders said “the
three of us could have been killed”. She added she had been confined to a
wheelchair for 10 weeks and that she had been forced to look on for four months
heartbroken as other people cared for her young child.
The other woman said she recalled experiencing “unreal”
pain at the crash site. She had prayed while injured on the road as she thought
she would die and was in hospital for four months.
She had not returned to work two years later and her
friend who was also injured had not returned to full-time work at the time
Flynn was sentenced.
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