In March 1998, a man who drove on the wrong side of the road and crashed into another car, killing the driver and injuring the driver's wife, received a suspended three-year sentence and was disqualified from driving for 20 years. He had five previous driving convictions.
In 1995 the new Road Traffic Act had come into force, raising the maximum sentence for dangerous driving causing death from five years to 10. Despite this, the longest sentence (other than a suspended sentence) imposed in a number of cases presented to the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday by counsel for Sheedy was four years.
Mr Patrick MacEntee SC presented Sheedy's case to the court for a review of his four-year sentence for dangerous driving causing death and for driving while over the drink-driving limit. He presented the three judges with a list of nine cases involving dangerous driving causing death, drawn from newspaper reports between November 1997 and July 1999.
The severest sentence was four years, with provision for a review after 21/2 years. This was imposed on a juvenile who had knocked down and killed an 11-year-old boy and driven away from the scene.
A three-year sentence was imposed on a Galway man who had killed a man in a hit-and-run accident while driving on the wrong side of the road. His alcohol level was 2 1/2 times the legal limit.
A Dublin man who drove through a red light and killed a 67-year-old man received a 28-month sentence, and in Donegal, a man who killed two people in a head-on collision while driving on the wrong side of the road received 2 1/2 -years. With remission, they will serve less than two years.
A garda who drove the wrong way up a one-way street and through red lights before crashing into a pub, killing his female passenger, received a one-year sentence.
A Tipperary man had five previous driving convictions when he drove on the wrong side of the road and crashed into another car. Its driver was killed and his wife was injured. The man received a suspended sentence of three years and was disqualified from driving for 20 years.
Suspended sentences of 5 1/2 and 2 1/2 years were imposed on two men who admitted drinking at least "a few" pints before driving. The first left the scene after he knocked down and killed a pedestrian, and reported the accident the next day. The second also killed a pedestrian and refused to provide a sample for an alcohol test, although a doctor said he was unfit to drive.
In addition to the suspended sentence, he was ordered to pay £3,000 to the National Children's Hospital and to do 240 hours community service.
No custodial sentence, suspended or otherwise, was imposed on a man who knocked down and killed a doctor. After being convicted for dangerous driving causing death, he was fined £1,000 and disqualified for two years. Mr MacEntee told the judges that he assumed these men had all pleaded guilty, as had Philip Sheedy.