‘She was expected not to survive, she beat the odds’

A man who killed a young mother and seriously injured her 15-week-old child when he hit them with his car while in “a micro-sleep” has been jailed for two years.

Gardaí believe Anthony Handley, aged 64, drifted off momentarily before his jeep veered from the road and hit the two near Balbriggan, Co Dublin. He had no alcohol or drugs in his system.

Judge Patrick McCartan refused a defence plea for a suspended sentence. He said Handley was a good man with a blameless record but that he should have been alert to the fact that he was becoming tired behind the wheel.