Social Affairs

Owners to be accountable if car driven by unaccompanied learner

Change in law to be introduced after call from man who lost wife and daughter in crash

Cork farmer Noel Clancy, who lost his wife Geraldine Clancy (58), and daughter, Louise Ann (22), on December 22, 2015 in a car crash, at Cork Circuit Court. File photograph: Cork Courts Limited

Aine McMahon
Fri Jan 6 2017 - 23:22

A man who lost his wife and daughter in a road crash caused by an unaccompanied learner driver has brought about a significant amendment to the new Road Traffic Act.

From now on car owners who give their vehicle to an unaccompanied learner driver will be held accountable in law.

Father of three, Noel Clancy from Leitrim in Kilworth, Co Cork, lost his wife and daughter in a crash near their home on December 22nd, 2015.

Susan Gleeson (21) was recently given a three-year suspended sentence for dangerous driving causing the deaths of his wife, Geraldine (58) and daughter Louise (22).

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The Clancy’s car ended up being flipped on its roof and pushed through a gap in a stone wall only to fall into a flooded ditch where Mrs Clancy and her daughter remained trapped and drowned despite the best efforts of locals including Mr Clancy – who came on the scene – to rescue them.

Gleeson pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death and although Mr Clancy said in a victim impact statement that he could not find it in his heart to forgive Gleeson, he said afterwards that he was glad the court recognised that his wife was blameless when it came to the crash.

Gleeson was an unaccompanied learner driver at the time of the fatal crash. It is illegal for learner drivers to drive a vehicle unaccompanied by someone with a driving licence of at least two years’ standing.

After Gleeson’s conviction at Cork Circuit Criminal Court in November, Mr Clancy said the Government needed to introduce new legislation to make car owners equally culpable if a family member on a learner permit drives the vehicle unaccompanied.

“I am calling on the Minister for Transport to implement legislation so that allowing one’s car to be driven by an unaccompanied learner driver is an offence and would make the car owner and driver equally accountable in law,” he said then.

Anguish

A year on from their deaths, Mr Clancy spoke on RTÉ News on Friday evening of the anguish he experienced when he happened upon the scene of the crash.

“I can see them lying on the road, Geraldine one side of the car, Louise behind her and the firemen working on them. They fought on the road for them,” he said.

“She was doing excessive speed from the moment she took out on the road. She wasn’t obeying the speed limit, nobody could argue that. To come around a 90 degree corner, she was going too fast,” he said.

“There were firemen and they ran past us and they were shouting and they were pulling a girl out of the car. She was blue and purple; I didn’t recognise her.

“I turned back to Michael O’Brien and I said to him; that girl is dead. I turned back and they were pulling a woman out of the car and I didn’t recognise her. I said those two women are dead,” he said.

“I turned back and saw the car and realised it was the same colour as ours, dark blue. I closed the boot and read the number plate of the car and knew it was them,” he said.

Mr Clancy also spoke about the pain of his grief since his wife and daughter were killed.

“It’s hard to see a future. People say to me there will be better days ahead and that the sun will shine but I don’t know,” he said.

“It was 10,705 days from the day I got married until the day my wife died. I counted it and I factored in the leap years and factored in everything. We were a hell of a team, a great team,” he said.

“On St Stephen’s Day 2015, before we came to the church, we closed the lids of the coffins. I would have given back an awful lot out of those 10,705 days for one minute to say goodbye. That was robbed and that was gone. I didn’t have that time. I kissed her lips and I thanked her for the life she shared for me and asked her to mind Louise. I tell you one thing, she did not need asking,” he said.

Minister for Transport Shane Ross told RTÉ News on Friday night: “We have responded to the Clancy’s tragedy by amending the Bill in the Dáil to ensure people who lent their cars to learner drivers are committing a criminal offence.”

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