Cyclist’s sister: Drink driver’s sentence too soft
Stefan Cooper, 18, died after he was struck by a car driven by Seán Collins, at Barley Hill, Roscarberry, Co Cork, in March, 2016.
Collins, aged 70, who lives at Threegneeves, Leap, had a previous drink-driving conviction. He pleaded guilty, this week, at Cork Circuit Court, to driving a car with excess alcohol and to driving without due care and attention, causing Stefan’s death.
He was given a one-year suspended jail term, a €500 fine, and was banned from driving for five years.
However speaking yesterday, Stefan Cooper’s sister, Michaela, said she was “quite upset” by the sentence. “I just didn’t expect it,” she told Sean O’Rourke, on RTÉ Radio One.
“I thought that, maybe, if the judge couldn’t imprison him, just for whatever reason, that, maybe, he might impose a significant financial penalty, something like €5,000, or something, and donate it to a charity, because that would more reflect the crime that had been committed.
"Even the five-year ban on the car wasn’t enough, I think 10, even. If you couldn’t imprison him, for whatever reason, that would seem more appropriate for the crime that had been committed,” she said.
She said her upset was compounded by the disclosure that Collins had a previous drink-driving conviction.
“That really upset me, to be honest. I can understand someone going out and making a mistake, a genuine mistake, but to have knowledge that it is wrong, and that he had a past of doing this... it just shows that people do it again and again and that definitely unnerves me, the idea that there’s drivers out there who are under the influence of drink,” she said.
Mr Cooper’s father, Christy, identified his son’s body on the side of the road, but had to leave to tell his daughters of the accident, before they learned of it on social media.
“My dad had to leave my brother and he said it was the most difficult choice,” Ms Cooper said.
“You could see it in the face, when he came home that day, even though he was glad to be able to tell us himself, he was utterly heartbroken to do it”.
