A young Co Donegal man whose careless driving left his friend in a wheelchair has avoided going to prison.
Ethan Grochowicki admitted careless driving causing serious bodily harm to Yousaff Ghaffer when he appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court.
The young men had become good friends after meeting at the Atlantic Technological University in Letterkenny, where both were studying Law and Criminal Justice.
The 22-year-old accused man, with an address at Clonmany Glebe, Terhoran, Clonmany, admitted that he drove a vehicle, a black Audi A4, without due care and attention at Garrowcarry, Letterkenny, on November 17th, 2023, causing serious bodily harm to Mr Ghaffer.
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Grochowicki was driving, his girlfriend was the front seat passenger, and Mr Ghaffer was a back-seat passenger.
They were on the outskirts of Letterkenny at Garrowcarry when they came to a sharp right-hand bend.
Instead of taking the bend, the driver drove straight and quickly ended up on a dirt road before hitting a grass verge and sending the Audi car into the air for some 25ft before coming to rest after hitting an embankment.
The two people in the front of the car had been wearing their seat belts, but the rear-seat passenger, Mr Ghaffer, had not.
He had been leaning forward to change music in the front of the car when it went out of control, leading to the crash.
In an interview with gardaí after the crash, Grochowicki, who had a full licence, said he was travelling at between 60 and 70km/h and drove straight on, saying he never intended to turn into the bend in the road as he thought it was a continuation.
He said he couldn’t remember if he hit the brakes and said he then blacked out as a result of the shock of the incident.
When he came around again, the airbags had been deployed, his girlfriend was screaming and his back seat passenger, Mr Ghaffer, was saying he couldn’t feel his legs.
All three were taken to Letterkenny University Hospital but Mr Ghaffer was transferred to Dublin’s Mater hospital because of the seriousness of his injuries.
The court was told that the accused man has no previous convictions and that he has since dropped out of the law course he had been doing and now works in a local casino.
Apologising in court to Mr Ghaffer, Grochowicki said he never thought that evening would end how it had.
Barrister for the accused, Colm Smyth SC, said his client had no drink or drugs in his system when tested, and he is a young man who will carry this burden with him for the rest of his days.
He added that the forensic examiner had clearly laid out that this was a severe right-hand bend, which could have been misjudged.
Mr Smyth said there was no lighting on the road, nor anything to indicate that there was a junction ahead. And there was no evidence of his client braking, saying he thought he could continue on and therefore the crash happened.
Mr Ghaffer took to the witness box to give his victim-impact statement.
He said how, at the time of the incident, he was looking forward to exploring new places and that his life was just beginning.
After suffering a severe spinal cord injury in the crash, he now uses a wheelchair following several operations.
He must take 21 tablets for the rest of his life and 20 of those make him drowsy and tired each day.
Mr Ghaffer says he struggles emotionally with fear, anger and depression since he was discharged from hospital and cannot get into other people’s cars.
Mr Ghaffer said for a few months after the crash he blamed the accused for what had happened to him but he began to think differently and that Grochowicki had not meant to do this to him on purpose.
“That shift began to help me to heal emotionally and physically,” he said.
Passing sentence on Grochowicki, Judge John Aylmer said the most aggravating factor was the “catastrophic injuries” suffered by Mr Ghaffer, which he is meeting with “incredible bravery, fortitude and enormous charity towards you”, he said.
The judge said the accused’s culpability lay in his failure to properly read the road ahead of him and to anticipate the bend in circumstances where there was no signage.
However, he said the most culpable mistake the accused made was to not ensure all his passengers were wearing seat belts. “That is the duty of all drivers.”
Judge Aylmer imposed a sentence of 18 months in prison, reducedto 12 months on mitigation.
He added that because the accused is a young man, his culpability was so low in the manner of his driving and his absence of previous convictions, the court took the view it should impose a sentence of 240 hours community service in lieu of 12 months in prison.
