Four Years For Driver Who Left Passenger Paralysed After Crash

A man has been jailed for four years for causing a high-speed crash which left a female passenger in a coma for nine months, and unable to use her limbs, talk or eat when she woke.

Lydia Branley, of Largydonnell, Co Leitrim, had previously been employed as an aviation radio officer. Now she can't move a muscle, speak or eat, but the 26-year-old's brain is otherwise fully functional.

Yesterday 31-year-old Martin Kearney was given a six-year jail sentence, with the final two suspended, at Roscommon Circuit Court after admitting dangerous driving causing harm.

Judge Anthony Hunt said he didn't recall anybody being "so seriously and tragically maimed as a result of a road accident".

Kearney was driving a BMW 3 series with a 3.2 litre engine on the night; shortly after his driving licence was returned to him halfway through a five-year driving ban.

He and a rear-seat male passenger were thrown 10 metres in the crash when he lost control turning off a main road onto a slip road and the car skidded 114 metres.

The car tumbled over two barriers and rolled another 100 metres across grass and struck a pole before landing on its roof.

Lydia was trapped inside and was freed after rescuers used cutting equipment.

Kearney, of Farranoo, Ballina, was also banned from driving for 20 years yesterday.

Lydia, sitting in a wheelchair with members of her family standing close by, was there to hear the sentence.

(H)