A DONEGAL woman walked free from court yesterday after a judge found that the fatal crash she caused more than three years ago was not the result of “girl racing”.
Louise Cantwell (24), a beautician from Gortlarry, Carndonagh, was found guilty by a jury in May of dangerous driving causing the deaths of her two friends, Alice Mullan and Kelly Doherty, both 20, in a crash at Ballyargus, Redcastle, shortly after 3.30am on March 19th, 2005.
During sentencing yesterday at Letterkenny Circuit Criminal Court, Cantwell received a three-year suspended prison sentence and was disqualified from driving for five years.
The court heard that the three friends were travelling home to Carndonagh in the defendant’s car from a nightclub in Redcastle when the collision occurred. The friends had started their evening at a benefit in memory of another friend, Shane Toye (19), also from Carndonagh, who had died in a crash the previous year.
The court was told yesterday how Cantwell’s Corsa was coming around a sweeping right-hand bend when it crossed the continuous white line.
It ended up in the wrong carriageway and struck an oncoming car driven by Rhona Moran, who was travelling home to Moville, Co Donegal, from her work in Derry.
Cantwell’s car was also struck by a Citroen Saxo driven by another friend, Patricia Logue. The Saxo was carrying four of the group’s male friends and was driving behind the Corsa after Cantwell overtook it.
The hearing yesterday heard how the defendant’s car spun around on the road and ended up on top of a barrel filled with gravel that was on the hard shoulder as part of roadworks.
Ms Mullan, who was a back-seat passenger, died at the scene while Ms Doherty, who was in the front, later died at Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry. Cantwell was taken to the hospital with a broken right leg, broken left arm and fractured pelvis. Ms Moran’s car ended up in the ditch on her correct side, while nobody in the Saxo was seriously hurt.
Victim impact statements from the families of the deceased, both of whom worked as civil servants in Dublin, were read out in court yesterday. The families said their pain had been deepened because Cantwell had shown no remorse and had not apologised.
Ms Doherty’s family said their “world fell apart” when she died in the crash. She was “someone special who always put others first”. The court heard how Kelly had texted her mother just before the incident to say she had had a great night and would be home soon.
Bernard Madden SC, for Cantwell, described the “personal hell” his client was going through and said the risk of her reoffending was practically non-existent.
In his summing up, Judge Martin Nolan said he could find no aggravating factors such as “excessive speed, boy racing or girl racing” in the evidence that would justify a custodial sentence for the defendant, who had no previous convictions.
He said he could only conclude what caused the crash was “inattention” that caused her to career into the wrong carriageway.