A Cork woman received a four-year suspended jail sentence and was banned from driving for 15 years when she pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday to dangerous driving causing the deaths of four people.
Lisa Corbett (24), of Churchtown, Co Cork, was overtaking a car which was pulling a cattle trailer near Charleville, Co Cork, in October 1999 when she struck an oncoming car and forced it off the road.
The occupants of the oncoming car included two teenage sisters, Ms Niamh and Ms Anita O'Herlihy, Ms Carmel Conroy (21) and her 21-month-old daughter, Emma. Ms Conroy and the O'Herlihy sisters were members of the group Nivita and had been setting up equipment at a hall in Charleville for a concert later that night.
Members of the O'Herlihy family who were present during sentencing at the Cork Circuit Criminal Court asked Judge A.G. Murphy not to jail Corbett, as she was not a criminal.
Everyone associated with the accident already had suffered enough, they said.
Passing sentence, Judge Murphy said the case was a very tragic one and he would take into account the observations of the O'Herlihy family.