Man jailed for dangerous driving in fatal Dublin crash

A man who was banned from the road after his dangerous driving caused the death of a back seat passenger and injured another passenger has received an eight-and-a-half year jail sentence.

Eric Wansboro (27), of Cherry Garth, Rivervalley, Swords, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of Sinead Maguire (43) and serious bodily harm to Liam McDonagh at Fairview, north Dublin, on May 29th, 2014.

Ms Maguire's death was caused by the severity of neck and spinal injuries resulting from a collision, according to a postmortem report by State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Wansboro was driving the Toyota Avensis at speed while being pursued by a garda patrol car.

Gardaí had earlier attempted to pull him over to check the car for tax and insurance.

The patrol car appeared at the scene shortly after the fatal collision and gardaí found all three occupants unconscious.

The car was reduced to scrap by the crash and every panel and mechanical component was damaged, the court heard.

Mr McDonagh, the front passenger, was not wearing a seat belt and suffered a fractured jaw.

Defence counsel said part of Wansboro’s heart was “blown” during the crash and his aorta had to be rebuilt by surgeons. He also suffered damage to his frontal brain lobe and has no recollection of the crash.

In a letter to the court, Wansboro accepted responsibility for the suffering and loss caused by him, Michael Bowman SC, defending, said.

At the time of the crash, Wansboro was out on a suspended sentence of three years for driving a stolen car in December 2011.

At that sentencing, in July 2013, Judge Mary Ellen Ring also disqualified him from driving for ten years.

Judge Ring imposed the three-year suspended sentence as a jail term yesterday and imposed an additional term of five-and-a-half years for the dangerous driving offence.

She backdated the sentence to January last, when Wansboro went into custody.

A taxi driver who witnessed the fatal crash estimated the car to be moving at a speed of about 100 k/h at a T junction with a speed limit of 50 k/h.

The witness said Wansboro tried to take a right turn but instead the car continued forward and hit a tree and a lamp post.

A garda forensic investigator put the minimum speed at the point of impact, at the junction of Malahide and Clontarf Rds, at 82k/h. There was no evidence of emergency breaking.

Victim impact report

In a victim impact report, Ms Maguire’s family said that she was a best friend and a carer to their mother, who has Parkinson’s disease.

Speaking outside the court, Lillian Maguire said her daughter was a caring, fun-filled person.

Mr Bowman said that Wansboro came from a decent family. He said he had excelled at boxing from an early age and went on to represent Ireland at an underage level. He had been in the army until 2008.

Counsel said his client had suffered brain injuries during the crash and has been unable to access the hospital care recommended for his recovery.

Judge Ring said that this case was at the severe end of the scale of this type of offence. She noted that letters written by Wansboro to the court made no reference to Mr McDonagh’s injuries and only a short reference to Ms Maguire.

She said his guilty plea was a mitigating factor but only to a limited degree, given that he was “caught red-handed”.