I dont think she meant to kill him. That would be mad. But she very definitely did kill him…While travelling on the wrong side of the road 25% over the speed limit. I think that puts her ‘culpability’ well above low.
Is there anything about those facts that has you thinking she might be off the road for more than six years?
And How was it established as ‘fact’ that she was in a microsleep rather than on her phone say?
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Ok. That’s your opinion and it’s valid.
24%
Did that come out in court
There was a rumour alright but i havent seen it confirmed
Surely it’s pretty easy to establish if she was on the phone or not
Dont think there was evidence of mobile phone use
The defence lawyer said tiredness may have been a factor as her son was in hospital and she spent the night there
She pleaded guilty to dangerous driving as she was speeding and on the wrong side of the road
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But would it set a precedent? The fact that the defence was she was tired, if someone is that tired, they should not be driving. Its akin to drunk driving. There is a taboo over drunk driving, but yet people will drive when tired, fall asleep and either kill themselves or as it seems in this case, killed another person because they drove a car when impaired. There needs to be harsher sentances for things like this to stop it happening and make people think they shouldnt do it. And for all the reasons people will say, ah its only up the road, sure how else would i get home, she didnt mean to kill him- you can attribute all these quotes to how people spoke about drink driving.
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She said she didnt remember .Her counsel suggested it was likely she fell asleep. That’s the only reference i can see to it.nice if thats just accepted and taken as mitigation.
What would be the purpose of jailing this woman?
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I agree
It wasnt accepted
The defence mentioned it
so she won’t kill anyone else.
Yeah, she sounds like a real serial killer alright.
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Give her time bro
Just seems to be no consequences to getting into a car and killing someone. Defence using excuses such as
“she was tired”
“sun was in their eyes”
“cyclist/pedstrian came out of nowhere”
“they weren’t wearing a helmet”
Judge goes, oh right, sure look how about a couple of years off the road and off you go
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Taking road safety laws seriously?
You’re just making stuff up now. She never claimed the sun was in her eyes, or the cyclist came out of nowhere or that the cyclist wasn’t wearing a helmet.
Whether she was driving while she was tired or just lost concentration for a second its nothing we all haven’t done ourselves. There was absolutely no intent. This was just a terribly sad accident. Throwing an elderly woman in jail would just make it sadder. The victims family are not looking for a prison sentence in their statement either.
Sorry for the confusion, those defences were used in other cases, not this one.
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if she was drunk & not tired should she have got jail?
120–150 incidents of dangerous driving causing death were recorded in Ireland over the last 5 years
- Ireland is significantly more lenient than most of the EU
- UK & France: prison is now the default in fatal dangerous driving
- Germany & Nordics: custody more common than in Ireland
- Ireland sits in the bottom tier of EU countries for imprisonment rates in fatal driving cases
In terms of road deaths, the biggest thing to prevent this is enforcement
In ireland we have:
Number of Roads Policing gardaí not doing jobs - Report
- Draft Plan Stalled: A draft strategy for wider camera-based enforcement, which was presented to the Department of Transport in May 2025, had not been finalized for 8 months as of January 2026, despite claims of urgency from ministers.
- Idle Technology: Red light cameras in Dublin have reportedly been left idle for long periods (some reports citing up to 7 years in early 2022).
- Missed Targets: The government has missed deadlines to allow for the use of traffic cameras to issue fines, creating frustration among local authorities.
- Implementation Gaps: While new safety camera zones (390) were announced for 1st January 2026, there have been concerns that these do not always include new, permanent, or Average Speed Camera (ASC) infrastructure, relying instead on mobile vans
Yes.
Just cos the Brits do it doesn’t make it right.
they need to push this a lot more