A MAN says he has no recollection of driving for over two miles while drunk has been jailed for seven years for dangerous driving causing the death of a woman last year.
Lukasz Lachowski (27), a Polish national living at Edward Court, Edward Street, Kilmallock, Co Limerick, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of Gillian Drinan (26) at the junction of Gearney’s Boreen and the Commons Road in Cork city on August 24th, 2008.
At Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday, Sgt Seán McCarthy told how the welder had driven to Donnybrook in Cork to visit a friend on the evening of August 23rd, 2008. He drank whiskey, vodka and beer before falling asleep on a couch in the friend’s house.
He later woke up and decided to drive back to Kilmallock, but has no recollection of the journey after he passed by Parnell Place in Cork city, some 2½ miles from where he crashed into Ms Drinan’s car, said Sgt McCarthy.
Ms Drinan, Church View, Ballincollig, had been attending a family function at Na Piarsaighs GAA club, but had not been drinking.She was driving home with her fiancé, John Paul Chisholm, when the crash happened, he said.
Ms Drinan had stopped at a set of traffic lights but 10 seconds later they turned green in her favour and she drove forward, only to be hit by Lachowski at speed as he broke through a red light, colliding severely with Ms Drinan’s car. She later died at Cork University Hospital. Lachowski was also taken to hospital suffering from lacerations to his shoulder.
A blood sample revealed that he had an alcohol concentration of 100mg per 100 ml of blood – some 20mg over the legal limit, the court heard.
The court heard a victim impact statement from Ms Drinan’s sister Michelle in which she spoke of “the unbearable emptiness” in all their lives since the tragedy while her brother, Brendan, in his statement said the family could no longer live in the carefree way they had.
Ms Drinan’s mother, Anne, said in her statement that “the pain is constant, as the days go by we miss her more . . . the heartbreak is so hard. It’s not right that you should bury your child, she should be burying us.”
Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said it was an appalling case given the aggravating factors, that Lachowski drove while drunk and at speed and ran a red light, while Ms Drinan in contrast had done everything right, driving with care and attention.
“It appears almost a perversion of justice which must cause her family even greater grief,” the judge said, noting that Lachowski had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity, expressed remorse in a letter to Ms Drinan’s family and that he had no previous convictions.
Observing that the maximum penalty was 10 years, Judge Ó Donnabháin sentenced Lachowski to seven years in jail on the dangerous driving causing death charge and six months concurrent for drunk driving. He banned him from driving for 20 years.
