Mother of man killed in crash criticises DPP

THE mother of a young man killed in a car crash complained that victims were forgotten and treated with no importance as she criticised the Director of Public Prosecutions for dropping a charge of dangerous driving causing death.

A last-minute decision was made by the DPP to accept a plea of guilty to a charge of careless driving after a jury had been sworn to hear the case against Thomas Lyons of Muniflugh, Carriganima, Macroom, Co Cork, on a charge of dangerous driving causing the death of Shane Cooney, 19.

Mr Cooney, a friend of the defendant, was a front-seat passenger in his car when it crashed on Saturday afternoon, October 4, 2003, after overtaking a van and then crossing a hump-back bridge and going out of control.

Lyons and the deceased with a third man in the back were following the stages of a rally.

They were travelling on the Millstreet to Rathmore road at the time.

Sgt Gerard Carmody said that at the time there were no road signs warning of the bridge and the speed limit was 60 miles per hour. It had now been reduced to 50 kilometres per hour.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin fined Lyons €1,000 and disqualified him from driving for two years.

The strongest evidence in the case came from Mary Cooney, mother of the deceased.

"My son is dead, nothing can bring him back. He went out that morning so full of life and happiness. We never again saw him until the night we saw him lying below in the Regional hospital dead.

"I feel very unhappy that he (Lyons) was not charged with dangerous driving causing death.

"It is my firm belief he has driven that road countless times before.

"He does not live that far away from where it happened," Ms Cooney said.

Defence senior counsel Denis Vaughan-Buckley said no jury could have found Lyons guilty of dangerous driving causing death, on the evidence in the case, and that to do so would have been an injustice.