There were emotional scenes at Limerick Circuit Court yesterday when the brother of a man killed in a horrific road collision in Co Limerick was jailed for three years.
Jason Ahern (20), Ballyan, Askeaton, Co Limerick, and his late brother Denis (26) were travelling on motorbikes at speeds of up to 100km/h when one of the bikes was involved in a head-on collision with an oncoming car, on the N69 road in Co Limerick two years ago.
An eyewitness said he observed the brothers, who were travelling side by side, performing dangerous manoeuvres which involved overtaking and swerving before the collision took place.
Jason Ahern, who pleaded guilty to two charges arising out of the fatal crash, had more than double the legal alcohol limit and his late brother also had alcohol in his system, the court heard yesterday.
The 20-year-old pleaded guilty to a charge of endangerment and a second charge of dangerous driving at Ballybrown, Clarina, Co Limerick on May 29th, 2005.
After sentencing, the accused man's distraught mother pleaded with Judge Carroll Moran not to take another child away from her. "I'm after losing one son you can't take another from me now," she cried.
Judge Moran described the case as "deeply tragic" and offered his sympathy to the Ahern family.
He had earlier heard evidence that Mortimor Stack, a motorist driving towards the two brothers on the N69 from Kildimo to Limerick, suffered serious head injuries when Denis Ahern's motorbike collided head on with his car. Mr Stack suffers from visual and hearing impairments as a result of his injuries.