Trucker who killed mum day after she gave birth walks free from court
Driver ‘fell asleep at wheel’ on M8
exits. The defendant said he had taken the statutory 15 and 30-minute breaks that morning but his tachograph was incorrectly inserted in the truck so this couldn’t be checked.
However, Garda Declan Corrigan said he would “have to dispute” this account.
A witness, engineer Patrick Foley, told gardai he overtook the truck shortly before the crash and noticed the space between his car and the truck “becoming greater because the truck was slowly veering off towards the hard shoulder” in a gradual movement.
Gda Corrigan said: “When he saw the car and saw where the truck had gone, he immediately thought there was going to be an impact.” The officer was one of the first at the scene and found Nicola in the rear passenger seat of a Ford Focus car. He said: “She appeared to be dead. There was no sign of life.”
Judge Thomas Teehan put the offence in the “upper range” with two years in prison – the maximum sentence for careless driving causing death.
He said it was not a crime of intent but of “recklessness”.
The judge added that on the issue of whether it was a case of “falling asleep at the wheel” or having a sneezing fit, the first possibility was “by far the most likely,” because of the gradual movement of the truck towards the hard shoulder, observed by witnesses.
Mcbride was given an 18-month sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to pay €10,000 in compensation to the deceased’s parents.
When he saw the truck he immediately thought there would be an impact GDA CORRIGAN
COURT YESTERDAY
Car wreckage in Tipperary