The loss of a young mother who was killed when the car in which she was a passenger was struck by a truck on a motorway hard shoulder has left “a huge hole” in the lives of her family and left her baby daughter “having to grow up without a mother,” a court has heard.
Nicola Kenny (26) from Thurles was killed instantly on September 5th, 2016, just a day after the birth of her only child Lily Rose.
She was being driven to Temple Street Hospital to visit her daughter by her aunt, with her mother also in the car, and they pulled into the M8 hard shoulder to take a call from the hospital to say the new baby was fine. A truck travelling in the same direction crashed into the back of the car and Nicola died at the scene, while her mother was injured and her aunt spent months in hospital with serious injury.
The truck-driver, Ciaran McBride (33) of Tivenmara Road, Carna, Keady, Co Armagh, pleaded guilty at Clonmel Circuit Court to careless driving causing death and serious injury. He was given an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to pay €10,000 in compensation to the deceased’s parents.
The crash was attributed to “driver error,” the court heard.
The accused had left his home in Armagh at 4.30am that day, driven 60km to Kells in Co Meath and then 320km to Cork to make two deliveries, before another 90km from Cork in the direction of Cashel, with the crash happening at 12.25pm between the Cahir and Cashel exits.
Mr McBride told gardaí in interviews that he had taken the statutory 15 and 30 minute breaks that morning but his tachograph was incorrectly inserted in the truck so this couldn’t be checked.
Based on checking the records at toll booths the accused passed through, Garda Declan Corrigan said he would “have to dispute” this account of taking breaks.
A witness, engineer Patrick Foley, told gardaí that he overtook the truck shortly before the crash and noticed the space between his car and the truck “becoming greater because the truck was slowly veering off towards the hard shoulder” in a gradual movement. “When he saw the car and saw where the truck had gone, he immediately thought there was going to be an impact,” Garda Corrigan said.
Garda Corrigan was one of the first at the scene and found Nicola Kenny in the rear passenger seat of a Ford Focus car. “Nicola appeared to be dead. There was no sign of life.”
Her mother Anne Kenny, who had been a front seat passenger, asked him was her daughter dead and he informed her that there was no sign of life.
Mr McBride was arrested at the scene. A breathalyser test was negative. He had a conviction for drink-driving going back to when he was 18, and for charges related to “smuggling” a person in his truck in France, when some people got into his truck without his knowledge.
A victim impact statement prepared by Nicola’s mother, Anne, said “Nicola’s premature death as a young mother has had a devastating effect on myself and our entire family” and that life will “never be the same”.
Her father, Paddy, said in his victim impact statement that the death “has left a huge hole in our lives” and the biggest loss has been suffered by Lily-Rose, “having to grow up without a mother”.
Nicola’s family did not attend court for the sentencing hearing. Her parents are in the process of securing guardianship of Lily-Rose. Philip Sheahan SC, for the accused, said his client had suffered a “fit of sneezing” just before the crash and “it was on account of that, it would appear, that his vehicle veered sharply into the hard shoulder”. Mr Sheahan assured the court “that the remorse and regret and sorrow is profound on Mr McBride’s account”. He said his client is a married man who is no longer a truck-driver but now employs five people.
Judge Teehan said the consequences of what happened “during a few seconds on this day in September 2016” have been “enormous” for the Kenny family. He put the offence in the “upper range” of such offences, with two years in prison the maximum sentence for careless driving causing death. He gave the accused credit for co-operating with the gardaí and pleading guilty, as well as his “genuine remorse” for what happened.