Volusia man apologizes, gets 10 years in fatal DUI crash

Shawn Patrick Doolan sobbed during his apology.

Then the 37-year-old New Smyrna Beach man was sent to prison for last year’s unusual DUI crash that killed a North Carolina tourist as she strolled on the beach in Volusia County.

Elizabeth Braly’s family attended Doolan’s sentencing hearing Friday.

“I hope that you can forgive me, but not for my sake, but for your own sake because I know that can harbor bitterness, destroy your life and will take you down a very dark path,” Doolan said, according to Orlando Sentinel news partner Fox 35. “I’ve already begun a life sentence. I don’t take this lightly, and I never have.”

Doolan pleaded no contest in July to charge of DUI manslaughter. Circuit Court Judge Terence Perkins imposed a 10-year sentence on Doolan, who faced as much as 15 years in prison. Perkins also ordered Doolan to serve three years of probation after prison and revoked Doolan’s drivers license for life.

Doolan was driving a 2002 Nissan on Dunlawton Boulevard on June 24, 2014, when he crashed through a closed gate at a beach-access ramp near Atlantic Avenue about 9:35 p.m. His vehicle went airborne when it clipped a tollbooth.

The Nissan landed on Braly, killing the 45-year-old mother of seven from Hendersonville, N.C., who was on vacation in Daytona Beach Shores with family members.

The Braly family had traveled to Florida to cheer on her youngest son, Jason, in a weekend state-finals track meet in Miami. Jason, 14, said in court Friday that he is serving “a life sentence without my mom,” but his father said he has forgiven Doolan, according to the Daytona Beach News Journal.

Dozens of people called 911 after the crash.

“Somebody just busted through the lifeguard stand here in a vehicle,” one of the initial 911 callers said. “Oh, [expletive], somebody has been run over.”