Tuam woman gets suspended sentence for crash which killed mother

Ann Shaughnessy, of 39 Tierboy, Tuam pleaded guilty before Galway Circuit Criminal Court.

Ann Shaughnessy, who suffers from recurring bowel cancer had taken double the amount of prescribed medication prior to the accident at Cloonmór, Tuam on June 20 last year, which caused the death of her mother, Mary Shaughnessy.

She had been disqualified from driving for four years in 2010 for driving without insurance and had a conviction for being drunk in public also.

She was not insured at the time of the fatal crash near the Belclare junction on the N17, Galway to Tuam road.

The court heard a passenger in a car travelling behind Ann Shaughnessy’s car that afternoon, began filming her erratic driving on his phone moments.

The video footage recorded Shaughnessy’s car drifting across the road on a sweeping bend, and drive along the hard shoulder on its incorrect side before colliding with three oncoming vehicles.

Her car then went across the road to its correct side and ended up in the ditch.

Mrs Mary Shaughnessy was pronounced dead at the scene having suffered multiple injuries in the collision.

The court heard she had suffered from Alzheimer’s for 20 years and her daughter had returned home to Tuam to mind her after the break-up of her own marriage in London.

Defence barrister, John Hogan said his client had suffered a lapse in concentration which was perhaps, accentuated by the heavy medication she was on at the time.

Imposing the sentence which he suspended for two years, Justice Raymond Groarke said the woman was on quite an amount of medication at the time and perhaps, she fell asleep.

The judge warned Ms Shaughnessy that if she was spotted driving in the next ten years she would serve the two year sentence, which he suspended.