Pensioner spared prison term for careless driving that caused death of woman in Cork

An 87-year-old woman has been given a suspended sentence and banned from driving for five years for careless driving causing the death of a pedestrian who was buying a Charleville GAA lotto ticket in November 2024. Agnes Foley of Farran, Charleville, Co Cork, accidentally put her foot on the accelerator rather than the brake, leading to the fatal injuring of a mother of five and also causing harm to another bystander.Mary Fehilly (72) from Holy Cross Place, Charleville, was killed in the incident and John Collins (68) was seriously injured at Main Street, Charleville, on November 2nd, 2024.Judge Helen Boyle recalled the circumstances of the accident when sentencing Foley at Cork Circuit Criminal Court. She said Foley was parking her car at lunch hour on Main Street when the accident happened. READ MOREShe misplaced her foot and her car mounted the footpath, hitting Fehilly and Collins as they chatted while he was selling club lotto tickets. The car rolled back off the footpath after the incident.The judge said Mary Fehilly suffered catastrophic injuries. A passing emergency medical consultant, Shane O’Donovan, attended to her before she was brought by air ambulance to Cork University Hospital, where she died later that night. State pathologist Dr Yvonne McCarthy carried out a postmortem and found that Fehilly had died from haemorrhage and shock secondary to multiple traumatic injuries due to a motor vehicle collision.She noted that Collins, who was 66 at the time and had recently retired from Kerry Group, had suffered a fractured pelvis and serious injuries to his left leg in the incident. It had a life-changing impact on him, while he also had to deal with the psychological trauma of the incident.Siobhán Fehilly had written a victim-impact statement on behalf of her father George, her siblings Nollaig, Padraig, Maeve and Gearóid, and herself. In the statement, she said the loss of their “beautiful, caring, vibrant mother” had devastated them.Collins also wrote a victim-impact statement in which he said his life now revolved around medical appointments. He added that despite 40 physiotherapy sessions and four lymphatic draining sessions, doctors had told him he would have to live with reduced mobility.The judge noted the points made in mitigation by defence counsel Marjorie Farrelly that Foley had driven without incident for 60 years, had no indication of any impairment before the crash, had given up driving since the crash, co-operated with gardaí and entered an early plea.The judge also noted that Foley had written a letter of apology to the Fehillys and Collins in which she said: “I feel so guilty. Nothing will ever erase it from my mind. That day will always be a nightmare – no words can express my regret for the grief and sorrow you are going through.”The judge said that while the lapse of attention was momentary, the impact was huge, but she believed that while the legislation provided for a two-year jail term, she didn’t believe that the offence merited a custodial sentence as there were no aggravating factors involved in the case.There were a number of key mitigating factors, including Foley’s early guilty plea, which spared the victims the trauma of a trial or the anticipation of a trial. Her lack of previous convictions and her co-operation with the Garda investigation from the outset were also factors.The judge said she was also taking account of Foley’s age, the fact she was a widow and while the defence counsel had not made an issue of it, she also noted that Foley suffered the trauma of being trapped in her car for 90 minutes while the emergency services tended to the casualties.She stated her view that the appropriate sentence would be two concurrent terms of 18 months, which she would suspend in their entirety. While she noted that Foley had not driven since the crash, she also disqualified her from driving for a period of five years.