A university student who panicked after striking a pedestrian, carrying him on the bonnet of a van for over 160 feet, drove away from the scene leaving one man dead and another seriously injured, a court heard yesterday.
Conor Dawson (21), from Coolgreen, Glanmire, Co Cork, pleaded guilty in Cork Circuit Criminal Court to dangerous driving, causing the death of Mr Kenneth Hendrick (28), from The Glen, Cork, on July 5th, 1997, at Ballyduvane, Clonakilty; failing to keep the vehicle at the scene of the accident; and to drunk driving.
Mr Hendrick went for a drink with a friend in The Pike Bar on the Skibbereen Road, a few miles from the town. They were walking back to Clonakilty on the grass margin in single file on the incorrect side of the 24 foot-wide road, hoping to get a lift.
Dawson, driving his father's van and accompanied by a number of friends, struck the two pedestrians, carrying Mr Hendrick's body 165 feet along the grass margin and leaving his friend unconscious in a ditch. He stopped half a mile away and then continued to Clonakilty, where he was spotted driving the van which had a missing front light by Sgt Brendan Fogarty, who was on his way to the accident.
Dawson was studying in Liverpool University and had no previous convictions.
Mr Michael Hendrick, father of the dead man, who was in court with family and relatives, wrote a letter to Judge A.G. Murphy, as did the dead man's fiancee.
He said his son, one of a family of four children, was a fine sportsman. He was never in trouble and planned to get married in March. The family was devastated by what had happened and his wife had aged 10 years.
"We are trying to pick up the pieces of our lives," he told the judge, who replied that he was very conscious of what something like this does to families but, unfortunately, he could not bring his son back.
Mr Sean O Donobhain BL, defending, said he did not want to add to the anguish and suffering of the Hendrick family. His client did not stop because of the panic of the moment due to his inexperience of life and driving. He had suffered enormously and would accept his guilt in the tragedy for as long as he lived. His life was ruined.
Mr Patrick Dawson said his son was the youngest of a family of six and he expressed his family's feelings for the sadness the accident had caused to the Hendricks. The family was devastated and he personally held a sense of responsibility for his son being in his van.
Judge Murphy said the lives of two families had been destroyed and the life of Dawson had been changed forever. He accepted that he was basically a decent person and the position he found himself in must "be close to a living death".
He sentenced Dawson to four years in prison and said he would review the sentence in a year's time. He disqualified him from driving for four years and endorsed his licence.