A CAVAN man who drove seven kilometres in the wrong direction down the Naas dual carriageway and killed a man has been spared a jail sentence after a judge said he thought alcohol might not have been the cause of the crash.
Civil engineer Ronan Cunningham (29) of Enniskeen, Kingscourt, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to dangerous driving causing the death of Emanuel Mendez (23) on October 10th, 2010, at Rathcoole, on the N7 Naas dual carriageway. Cunningham also pleaded guilty to driving while under the influence of alcohol on the same date.
Prosecution counsel Melanie Greally told Judge Martin Nolan that Cunningham had been attending a darts tournament at Citywest Hotel.He had consumed “about eight pints” and had booked a room in the hotel, but “could offer no reason” why he decided to drive back to Cavan at 1am.
He ended up driving south on the N7 until he came off at the Kill slip road before driving back down on to the dual carriageway in the wrong direction.
The court heard that Mr Mendez and his fiancee, Latoya Scott, were returning from a dinner celebrating Ms Scott’s birthday, and were travelling on the outer lane in the direction of Naas, when, according to Ms Scott, all she could remember was seeing a flash of light and feeling the impact, which sent the car spinning out of control.
Ms Scott managed to free herself, but Mr Mendez, who was revived momentarily at the scene, was trapped and had to be cut from the wreckage. He was taken to hospital, where he later died as a result of damage to his liver.
Ms Scott said in her victim-impact statement that her fiance’s death has left her completely devastated.
After the crash Cunningham was found to have had 150mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.
Judge Nolan said he wasn’t sure what had happened to Cunningham on that night, but said he didn’t think drink caused him to do what he did. He said that what Cunningham did was totally reckless and something no sensible person would do.
He said Cunningham’s behaviour was totally out of character, as he was “a perfectly sensible man” up until that night.
“I’m not sure Mr Cunningham knew what he was doing. I’m not sure the drink was the cause. I’m not sure that I don’t accept his explanation. It’s very difficult to justly sentence this case,” the judge said.
“He’s not dishonest, he’s not stupid and he’s a man who doesn’t lack sense. I think something happened to Mr Cunningham that night that’s not explainable by the drink he took.”
Judge Nolan said Cunningham was certainly “drunk while driving the car” and it was “obviously a possibility” that the amount of drink put him into an “insensible state”. He had to take the guilty plea into account, along with Cunningham’s co-operation with gardaí, his lack of previous convictions and, centrally, his doubt about whether the guilty man knew what he was doing.
He sentenced Cunningham to five years in prison which he suspended in full on condition that he is of good behaviour for that period. He also disqualified him from driving for five years.
Defence counsel Paul Greene said Cunningham had paid €25,000 to the family as a token of his remorse.