Two men have been jailed for 12 years and three months after they were involved in a high-speed chase on the N24 Limerick to Tipperary road, resulting in the death of an innocent motorcyclist and serious injuries to two others.
Michael Stanners, (41), Pineview Gardens, Moyross, Limerick, was jailed for 6½ years and given a 10-year road ban on Friday, after he was previously convicted by a jury at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court of two counts of endangerment.
Daniel Philips (35), Crecora Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston, Limerick, was jailed for five years and nine months, and given a 10-year road ban after he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of motorcyclist Maurice Fehilly, and to dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm to motorcyclist Thomas Traynor, who subsequently died after undergoing 22 operations due to his injuries.
Phillips received a concurrent three-month sentence after he pleaded guilty to driving without insurance on the same day.
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A third motorcyclist, Tom Conway, was travelling in a single-file convoy along with Mr Fehilly and Mr Traynor, but he escaped serious injury and attended court with the families of the two deceased men.
The fatal collision occurred outside the village of Dromkeen, Co Limerick, on January 4th, 2020, on what was a fine dry day.
Sentencing judge Sinéad McMullan said Phillips was driving a Hyundai van being pursued at high speed by a group of four men, who were travelling in a Toyota Avensis car, which was being driven by Stanners, outside the village of Dromkeen, Co Limerick, on January 4th, 2020.
During the pursuit, one of the men in the car driven by Stanners leaned out of the vehicle and struck Phillips’s van with a baseball bat and roared, “you’re dead, you’re dead, you’re dead”.
The van and car were travelling on the wrong side of the road, the court heard.
The van being driven by Phillips, who was accompanied by a woman and young child, collided with Mr Fehilly and Mr Traynor, both from Clonmel, Co Tipperary, after he took a bend in the road at high speed.
Mr Fehilly died almost instantly, and Mr Traynor was rushed to hospital, later undergoing multiple surgeries. Mr Traynor ultimately had to have one of his legs amputated below the knee and subsequently died.
The judge described as “absolutely reprehensible” Stanners’s driving leading up to the collision and said she found it “difficult to imagine a worse scenario” for the victims' families.
