DPP: Driver who caused death of child should have been jailed

Appeal against sentence given to truck driver who was fined €1,500 for careless driving that caused death of Estlin Wall, 3

Senan O'Flaherty pleaded guilty to careless driving causing death, and careless driving causing serious bodily harm. File picture

A truck driver who was fined €1,500 for careless driving that caused the death of a three-year-old girl should have been given a custodial sentence, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has told the Court of Appeal.

Appealing the sentence as unduly lenient, Shane Costelloe, counsel for the DPP, said the message sent out is that people who drive carelessly might "get away with no sentence whatsoever". 

He urged the three-judge appeal court to at least impose a suspended prison sentence, "as a method of dissuading people from driving in a careless way". 

Estlin Wall was just days away from her fourth birthday when she was killed in an accident which caused serious bodily harm to her father, Vincent Wall, on March 15, 2017.

Arising from the crash, Senan O'Flaherty, aged 64, of Lower Gowerhass, Cooraclare, Co Clare, pleaded guilty to careless driving causing death, and careless driving causing serious bodily harm. At a sentencing hearing last year, Judge Gerald Keys fined O'Flaherty €750 in respect of each charge, and banned him from driving for four years, the shortest ban allowed under the statute. Judge Keys said O'Flaherty had a "low culpability" in causing the tragedy.

Mr Costelloe told the three-judge court that O'Flaherty was driving his heavy goods vehicle behind a bus which was accelerating and slowing down "erratically". He said that O'Flaherty may have become frustrated by the continuously changing speed and was seen by witnesses in cars behind him driving "right up behind the bus". 

Amy and Vincent Wall, parents of Estlin.

Counsel submitted that at the first point on the road where it was legal to overtake, O'Flaherty crossed over the median line causing Mr Wall, who was travelling in the opposite direction, to take evasive action. Mr Wall lost control of his Skoda Fabia which did a 360-degree turn and was in collision with an oncoming car that had been driving behind Mr O'Flaherty's car. 

Mr Wall's daughter, who was in the back seat, suffered catastrophic injuries and died.

Mr Costelloe said the sentencing judge had erred by accepting a statement by O'Flaherty that he only crossed the median line because he saw the bus crossing it and thought there might be a pedestrian or cyclist on the left side of the road. Counsel said the judge had found that the only error committed by O'Flaherty was in driving too close to the rear of the bus.

Michael Collins, counsel for Mr O'Flaherty, said the judge had extensively referenced the State's case and that Mr Costelloe was incorrect to suggest that he took Mr O'Flaherty's account "at face value". He said the judge was entitled to make the finding that he did and no error was made.

President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice George Birmingham, sitting with Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy and Mr Justice Pat McCarthy, will deliver their judgement on Tuesday.