A WOMAN WHO avoided jail for driving into the hard shoulder of a motorway and colliding with a motorcyclist, causing his death, has had her driving ban halved after the Court of Appeal heard the trial judge was mistakenly told a four-year disqualification was mandatory.
Sandra Kavanagh (48) was driving to work in heavy traffic on the M50 in Dublin on the morning of November 2019 when she indicated left and moved her car part-way into the hard shoulder, colliding with Nebojsa Sarcevic who was travelling in the same direction on his motorbike.
She had four previous convictions for road traffic offences, including exceeding the speed limit, and failing to wear a seat belt.
Sarcevic, who was 29, was thrown from his bike and crashed into the motorway barrier. He died as a result of his injuries later that day.
Judge Martin Nolan had initially disqualified Kavanagh from driving for one year, but barristers in the case returned to court shortly afterwards and said there was a mandatory disqualification of four years in place.
Kavanagh, of Leigh Valley, Ratoath, Co Meath, pleaded guilty to careless driving causing death on the M50 near Finglas on 19 November 2019.
Justin McQuade BL, for Kavanagh, submitted to the Court of Appeal that both the defence and prosecution had mistakenly informed Judge Nolan in November 2022. that there was a mandatory four-year driving ban for the offence.
At a brief hearing of the Court of Appeal today, Pieter Le Vert BL, for the DPP, said there was objection being made by the State to quashing and re-sentencing the driving ban, which he said was a discretionary matter for the court.
Ms Justice Úna Ní Raifeartaigh said the court would quash the original four-year ban and replace that with a two-year ban. A now served eight-month fully suspended sentence was to remain on Kavanagh’s record.
The judge noted that Sarcevic was a Serbian national who had moved to Ireland and had a wife.
Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh said Kavanagh was not speeding, had no drug or alcohol present in her system and was not on her mobile phone at the time of the collision.
The judge said the court noted that Kavanagh was “very sorry” for what had happened.
The judge said Kavanagh had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity to careless driving causing death, for what the trial judge said was a “momentary lapse into inattentive driving that could happen to anyone”.
Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh said Kavanagh showed “considerable, sincere and genuine remorse” over the fatality that had caused the appellant “considerable trauma” in what was “an extremely tragic case”.
“This could happen to any one of us,” said Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh, who extended her “utmost sympathy to the family”.
“No sentence could replace what has been lost by the family,” said Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh.
Sentencing Kavanagh at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in July 2022, Judge Nolan noted that it was not known why Kavanagh drove onto the hard shoulder, nor whether she looked into her mirror before doing so.
A safety report handed into court by the defence concluded that if Kavanagh looked into her mirror, she still may not have seen Sarcevic behind her.
Garda Shane Guinan told Le Vert that Kavanagh was driving to work around 7.45am on the day in question. It was still dark and traffic on the M50 was heavy and moving slowly, but driving conditions were otherwise good.
Gardaí and emergency services arrived quickly at the crash and Kavanagh was questioned by gardaí later that day.
She told gardaí she didn’t remember crossing the yellow line for the hard shoulder, saying “I think I must have been, but I don’t know”.
Kavanagh attended for a second voluntary interview the following January where she was shown video footage of the incident. She became upset upon watching it and expressed her condolences to Sarcevic’s family.
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