Four-year ban is 'amount of time Estlin had on Earth', says mother of careless driving victim

Amy and Vincent Wall outside court today.

A fine and a four-year driving ban for the man whose careless driving caused the death of a little girl who didn't even make it to her fourth birthday — her mum says she is "very disappointed" with the sentence.

Amy Wall was speaking outside Ennis courthouse where Judge Gerald Keys imposed a fine of €750 on Senan O’Flaherty (aged 63) for the careless driving causing the death of Estlin Wall — a number of days before her fourth birthday.

Judge Keys also imposed a €750 fine for the careless driving causing serious bodily harm to Amy’s husband and Estlin’s father, Vincent Wall, and a mandatory four-year driving ban.

A truck driver and small farmer, Mr O’Flaherty will be unable to drive and drive for a living during the ban. Amy commented on the sentence imposed: “That’s literally the amount of time Estlin had on Earth so it is hard to equate the two as being fair."

Pregnant with the Walls’ third baby, Amy added: “It is very disappointing but we are days away from having another baby — we have a three-year-old and there was nothing that was ever going to bring Estlin back so that’s how we are going to have to think about it in order to move forward.”

Amy donated Estlin’s organs and the lungs and kidneys of her ‘superhero’ and ‘lifesaver’ daughter were successfully transplanted to two different recipients.

Amy described their loss: “We just loved her to bits and pieces and there hasn’t been a moment of any day that has gone by where we haven’t missed her and wished that she was with us and we know that this is how the rest of our lives are going to go is missing her every moment of every day.

“To not even get a suspended sentence, it doesn’t feel right at all.

The process has been so frustrating and difficult for us and it is has ended with a very disappointing sentence so we just have to accept that and try to keep moving forward and the new baby coming will help us do that.

"It will be hard to stay too stuck in the past and we know that Estlin is always with us in our hearts and that’s all we really have.”

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) can appeal against the sentence if the Director believes the sentence is “unduly lenient’.

Asked if she was in favour of an appeal to the Court of Appeal, Amy said: “It is hard to even think of putting even any more energy into this and going through the process again and just to have a similar sentence be put down - I just don’t think there is much point in doing that.

“Mr O’Flaherty - I know that he knows he was responsible and I’m sure he got off quite well today and I don’t really want to put much more energy into him.”

Vincent sustained a significant brain injury in the crash and commenting on his own recovery, he said: “The recovery is so slow it is actually hard to tell if I have improved really. It feels like I have just gotten good at being injured.”

Vincent described the sentence as “very deflating” after three years “of waiting and waiting and waiting”.