Don’t jail the driver who killed our son

Parents’ appeal to judge in fatal road crash case

‘Dreams have been taken from us’

THE parents of a teenager who died in a horrific road crash have pleaded with a j udge not to send the driver to jail.

Evan Quinn was 19 years old when he crashed his car in August 2015, killing his best f riend Martin Strain and seriously injuring Mr Strain’s girlfriend Kayleigh Fullerton – who were both passengers in the vehicle.

Just hours earlier, Quinn had been stopped by gardaí and told to replace two bald tyres on the vehicle.

Later that night, driving in ‘horrific conditions’, Quinn missed a bend, hit a verge and spun out of control. The car hit a kerb, a bus shelter, a lamp-post and finally a tree before coming to a stop.

The impact was so violent the engine was thrown from the vehicle. Quinn has pleaded guilty to careless driving causing death.

However, Mr Strain’s heartbroken father Hugh, supported by his wife Elaine, took to the witness box at Letterkenny Circuit Court in Co. Donegal on Friday where he pleaded with Judge John Aylmer not to jail the driver. Mr Strain admitted that they had been left with a void in their lives but added that his ‘happy and hard-working’ son would not have wanted Quinn jailed.

‘We have forgiven Evan Quinn. What happened that night was a tragedy,’ he said.

‘But we are thankful that we have not been put through a trial.

‘We want to let the world and the court know what a happy-golucky and hard-working son he was. Our hopes and dreams have been taken from us that we will never fulfil. He was a loving son, and brother to Stephen.

‘He was a friend to many – much more than we realised. He was loved by everyone.

‘But we know that Martin would never have wanted Evan to have been sent to jail.’

Quinn tested negative for drink and drugs after the crash.

But the court was told that his car had been defective ahead of the fatal accident at Tooban on the Inishowen Peninsula in Co. Donegal on August 23, 2015.

Quinn, f r om Meenagorey, Buncrana, Co. Donegal, and Mr Strain had collected the latter’s girlfriend from Liberty’s nightclub and they were travelling onwards when the crash happened at around 4.30am.

Mr Strain, who was 19 years old and f r om Burnfoot i n Co. Donegal, died at the scene, while Ms Fullerton sustained various injuries but survived.

The court was told the driver was a ‘novice’ who had only been behind the wheel a number of months with a full licence.

The court was told by Quinn’s barrister Peter Nolan that his client’s own brother had been killed previously by a drink-driver and that he was wracked with guilt over the death of his friend Martin. He has not been behind the steering wheel of a car since this incident, Mr Nolan added.

Judge Aylmer said he would read the various reports in the case and deliver his sentence on Wednesday.