Woman not guilty after death of her four friends
A WOMAN found not guilty of dangerous driving causing the death of her four friends will have to live with the consequences of what occurred for the rest of her life, according to the trial judge.
A jury returned unanimous not guilty verdicts for 23-yearold Dayna Kearney of Crossneen, Carlow, who was charged with dangerous driving causing death and driving a defective vehicle.
Jurors took less than 25 minutes before reaching their verdict yesterday afternoon at Naas Circuit Court following a trial which lasted a day and a half.
Ms Kearney had been driving a Volkswagen Polo that veered out of control into the wrong lane on the N78 colliding with an oncoming van at Burton, Athy, Co. Kildare on the night of 6 January, 2015.
The car had spun and collided with the front of the van on the passenger side.
Passengers Aisling Middleton, 19, from Athy; and Gemma Nolan, 19; Chermaine Carroll, 20; and Niamh Doyle, 19, all from Carlow, died almost instantly in the collision.
Ms Kearney wiped tears from her eyes yesterday as the verdicts were read out while the cries of members of the victims’ families could also be heard.
Some of jurors were visibly upset. After the verdict, Judge Eoin Garavan said Ms Kearney had come into the court not guilty and, as she now left, nothing had changed.
He described the case as a ‘most appalling and sad tragedy’ and paid tribute to the young women who lost their lives, their families and friends.
‘For four young people in the prime of their lives to lose their lives on a good road on a good evening, it puts tragedy upon tragedy.
‘Their lives can never be replaced.’
Judge Garavan said Ms Kearney would live with the consequences of the accident for the rest of her life. He said it appeared the accident had occurred because of uninflated or under-inflated tyres. ‘To think of something quite small, easily overlooked could cause such devastation, it’s such a salutary lesson for us all.’
Defending solicitor Frank Taaffe spoke on behalf of Dayna Kearney
outside Naas Circuit Court after the event.
Mr Taaffe said his client’s reaction was of relief but was ‘tinged with great sadness for having lost four of her dear friends and great sadness for the loss incurred by their families’.
The group of friends had been travelling to Athy after a day spent ice-skating in Kilkenny.
He said Ms Kearney had undergone counselling for the last threeand-a-half years because of the tragic accident.
Mr Taaffe said her client expressed her heartfelt sorrow to the victims’ families.
‘They were all her friends who died in that tragic accident. She feels their loss and she understands the great loss that has been suffered by those families.’
The victims’ family members were visibly upset as they quickly left the courthouse. Yesterday morning, Judge Garavan had charged the jury of seven women and five men prior to deliberations. He described the case as ‘particularly tragic’ but said the jury must approach the matter in a clinical and dispassionate matter.
‘You will have to leave your sympathies aside,’ he said.
The State’s case was that underinflated tyres on the car and a heavy load caused it to veer into the wrong lane.
The court had previously heard that Ms Kearney had purchased the 01-registered Polo around six months before the accident after seeing a Done Deal ad.
The ad claimed that the car had an NCT up to April 2015 and a disc with the same details came with the car.
However, it was discovered after the accident the car’s NCT disc had expired in May 2014.
The court had been told the Polo had been in sound mechanical condition at the time of the accident. However, a Garda public service vehicle inspector gave evidence that a rear driver’s side tyre had been flat at the time of the collision while a front passengerside tyre had been deflated by over a half.
The defence had argued that it could not be known for certain what the pressure of the car’s tyres pre-accident were.
Judge Garavan said the jury had to look at the prosecution’s case overall even if they had doubts about some aspect of the prosecution’s engineering evidence.
He said the ‘kernel’ of the case was what the accused knew or should have known of the car’s condition.
Evidence had been heard that Ms Kearney was a provisional driver at the time of collision and had been unaccompanied by a qualified driver. Judge Garavan said the onus was on the prosecution to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt.
‘If you have a lurking doubt that some information should have been available that is reasonable doubt to have and you would find the accused not guilty,’ he said.
A ‘most appalling and sad tragedy’ ‘Salutary lesson for us all’