Road deaths: 'My father’s life, his dreams, seemed to hold little value in the eyes of the courts'

Speaking on World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, Laura Rice said the loss of her father Alan would have been 'much easier' to deal with had the legal process concluded within a reasonable timeframe. Picture: Keith Arkins Media 

The daughter of a man killed by a dangerous driver has accused the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) of “not caring about the victim” after the case against her father’s killer was delayed repeatedly.

Terry Gaff, aged 56, pleaded guilty last April to causing the death of 68-year-old Alan Rice after driving into his motorcycle on the wrong side of the road, near Skerries in Co Dublin in April 2021.

However, the resolution of the criminal action took three years to process after the DPP failed to have a book of evidence prepared in order to prosecute Mr Gaff on eight separate occasions, including one on the second anniversary of Mr Rice’s death, an experience his daughter Laura described as “the worst”.

Speaking at a Road Safety Authority event to mark World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, Laura Rice said she has no doubt her family’s loss would have been “much easier” to deal with had the legal process concluded within a reasonable timeframe.

“Each time we had to sit on a bench beside the man who killed Da, sitting as strangers but wanting to ask him why he did this,” she told the audience, itself comprised of others who had lost loved ones to road tragedies.

The DPP should have its evidence ready. Why did it take two years? And then they describe it as an inefficiency? It’s wasting guards’ time, wasting families’ time. Who’s winning when you go to court so many times?

“I don’t think they care at all about the victim,” Ms Rice said.

After hearing that her father had died, Ms Rice said she had been "naive" when inquiring if the driver had been arrested or banned from driving.

“I had no idea that our lives, moods, grief were going to be given over to a criminal case, which I found to be like a part-time job but with no pay and no reward and one that I could not quit.”

Ms Rice and her family attended court 16 times before Mr Gaff finally pleaded guilty. He was never required to give a statement as to what had happened when the collision occurred.

He was handed a €1,000 fine and a two-year suspended prison sentence following his guilty plea.

Ms Rice said the lack of mandatory sentencing for offenders points to “an inherent issue in our legal system”.

“The system, meant to provide justice, seemed to prioritise his needs over ours,” she said of Mr Gaff’s prosecution, describing his punishment as “a mere slap on the wrist”.

“He could still drive, he needed to for work, the judge said. My father’s life, his dreams, his love for his family, seemed to hold little value in the eyes of the courts.”

“How did he mean so little when he was our world?” she asked.