Fireman spent 12 hours in pub before hit and run
Father of three jailed after victim died from serious head injuries
A VOLUNTEER fireman who had up to 16 drinks before he knocked down a young man, leaving him fatally injured by the side of a road, has been jailed for five-and-a-half years.
Derek Keane (40) was sentenced over the death of Callum Grimes (28), who was found unconscious with serious head injuries in a lay-by in north county Dublin in late 2016. He died in hospital seven months later.
Keane, of The Cottage, Loughshinny, Skerries pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of Mr Grimes at Loughshinny on December 27 that year.
He also admitted failing to offer assistance.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard Keane had drunk between 12 and 15 pints of Guinness and a gin and tonic before taking his van home from the pub.
Mr Grimes had been walking home alone in the early hours after Christmas celebrations in a pub with friends but was alert to traffic and not impaired by alcohol.
Keane had no memory of the collision or of driving home but went to gardaí after he woke up, saw the damage to his van and heard there had been an incident on the road.
Sentencing him, Judge Martin Nolan said the amount Keane had drunk had rendered him “insensible” and incapable of having control of his vehicle.
Mark Grimes, the father of the dead man, said in a victim impact statement the family would never be the same after the loss of their “blueeyed
boy”. The victim’s mother Catherine was unable to come to court as she is undergoing cancer treatment.
Keane, a father of three and electrician and volunteer firefighter, offered a “deep apology”, saying he would live with the shame for the rest of his life.
Detective Sergeant Sean Pender told Garnet Orange SC, prosecuting, that a bread delivery man, Paul Fitzpatrick, came across Mr Grimes lying by the road at 8.10am.
He was still breathing, but his breath was laboured. Mr Fitzpatrick called emergency services and a passing nurse pulled in to help. Mr Grimes was brought to Beaumont Hospital for treatment for a serious head injury but his condition deteriorated and he never regained consciousness, dying on July 14.
Keane attended Balbriggan garda station at 12.55pm on December 27 and said he had been at his uncle’s pub in Skerries for 12 hours. He had one prior conviction for speeding.
Mr Grimes’s father said he had been a “shy boy who loved life”, a gifted artist and amateur chef who loved to travel with his girlfriend Ash.
“We struggle in the name of all that’s decent, Mr Keane, to understand how you killed our son and left him on the side of the road,” he said.