Mother forgives death crash teen
A MOTHER who lost her only child in a horrific collision has said she forgives the driver of the car that smashed into her family.
Zoe Scannell, eight, was killed when a car, driven by a 17-year-old, slammed into her family last June.
Zoe’s mother Alisha suffered a number of serious injuries in the collision near Rosscarberry, Co. Cork.
It emerged that teenager Ian Lawlor O’Donovan lost control of the car he was driving and ploughed into the car carrying Zoe, her mother and her mother’s partner Eddie Murphy.
In April, Lawlor O’Donovan, now 18, was given a two-year suspended jail sentence.
Speaking on local radio yesterday, Ms Scannell said she had forgiven the young man after meeting him before his sentencing hearing last month.
‘It was a tragic accident,’ said Ms Scannell, from Abbeyfeale, Co. Limerick. ‘ He held up his hands and pleaded guilty and I’ve forgiven him.
‘We’ve spoken and we’ve moved on f rom i t. To know that he was remorseful and that it hurt him as it hurt me meant a lot to us.
‘I remember one thing he said to me, “I’m an only child too. I know how important one child is to their mum”.
‘We had a bit of a hug and I gave him one of Zoe’s loom bands, and I think there was a little bit of a connection there between the two of us, and that we know what the other is going through.’
She told Limerick’s Live 95FM: ‘Hopefully, we’ll make contact again in the future.’
At the weekend, Zoe’s friends and family in Abbeyfeale remembered the schoolgirl, who made her First Holy Communion in May 2014, with a host of activities to raise money for First Light bereavement counselling service.
And yesterday, Ms Scannell paid tribute to her late daughter.
‘She had big brown eyes and beautiful sallow skin. She was always smiling, always laughing,’ Ms Scannell said. ‘I remember a friend said to me that the one thing that sticks in his head is Zoe’s laughter. It was a real giddy, silly laugh.’