Mother involved in serious Mayo accident 'wracked with guilt'

A mother was involved in a serious car crash after consuming two bottles of wine the night before.

Siobhan Finn, aged 32, of Abbeyquarter, Ballyhaunis, appeared before a sitting of Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court where she pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing serious injury to one of her children.

Garda Karen Kilcullen told the court that at 11.40 a.m. on July 21, 2023, gardaí were called to a road traffic accident outside Brickens where a VW Jetta had collided head-on with a tree.

Emergency services responded and Ms. Finn’s children, who were aged five and eight at the time, had to be extracted from the car. The children were wearing seatbelts but were not in child-seats.

Ms. Finn’s five-year-old daughter spent over six weeks in hospital. The child has made a full recovery.

Ms. Finn told gardaí that she was travelling at around 90km/h when she approached a bend.

She felt the back of the car was sliding away from her. She regained control but as she entered a second bend, the car slid away again, and she lost control.

She saw an oncoming car in the distance and veered across the road in an effort to avoid it but struck a tree.

The court heard the car had a caliper defect that Finn could not have been aware of and the road was wet. A blood sample later revealed a reading of 106mg of alcohol.

The defendant told officers she consumed two bottles of wine and stopped drinking at 3 a.m.

The court was told she has no alcohol addiction issues but was binge drinking on this occasion.

“I know what I did was foolish and I will always live with the consequences of it,” she told officers.

She had been asked by a neighbour to drive to a shop that morning and agreed to do so. She has no previous convictions.

Barrister Diarmuid Connolly said his client is “wracked with guilt” and the shame will never leave her. He said the incident occurred at a “quite notorious” area for accidents.

Judge Eoin Garavan said the case showed that someone can be almost twice the legal limit eight hours after stopping drinking.

The judge imposed a suspended jail term of three years and four months and disqualified Ms. Finn from driving for eight years.

* Published under the Courts Reporting Scheme.