‘I didn’t mean to kill her,’ says Limerick teenage driver ‘high’ on drugs

A TEENAGER responsible for the death of a nurse was high on fast gas and cannabis and had been driving up to 200km per hour before the three-vehicle collision.

Áine O'Reilly from Pallasgreen was on her way to work on February 13 of this year when the dangerous driving of Keelan O'Connell (19) of Scanlon Park, Castleconnell, caused another vehicle to collide with Ms O'Reilly's car at Grange West, Boher.

At the sentence hearing in Limerick Circuit Court this Tuesday, the court heard that Mr O’Connell was disqualified from driving at the time, had no driving licence, no insurance and was driving an unregistered car, which he had jointly won with a friend on a Facebook raffle.

He had the car around a week and a half at the time of the fatal collision.

Having initially fled the scene and failing to offer any assistance, Mr O’Connell presented himself to gardaí the day after the fatality.

His car was found 107 metres from the site of the collision and blood on the driver’s airbag matched his DNA profile.

In garda interview, he said: “I didn’t mean to kill her.”

The court heard that Ms O’Reilly died from multiple traumatic injuries.

Keelan O’Connell said that before the collision, he had been “spinning around using fast gas all day.”

Himself and his friends, who were passengers in the car at the time of the fatal collision shared the fast gas, which they had purchased six bottles of for €100.

Mr O’Connell also admitted to smoking possibly three joints.

He described his driving as “stupid and careless” and said that when he realised there had been a fatality that he felt “pure guilty and ashamed and so sorry.”

The young man told gardaí that he was “going too fast to control" the car.

He admitted that the multiple vehicle collision was completely his fault and he accepted full responsibility.

The court heard that road conditions did not play a part in the collision and that there were no defects in any of the three cars involved.

Barrister for the State, Lily Buckley BL outlined that Mr O’Connell had attempted to undertake a car on the hard shoulder and collided with it, forcing that car across the road into Ms O’Reilly’s vehicle at Grange West, Boher.

The outcome of the garda investigation was that it was the actions of Mr O’Connell as driver, which caused the collision, and that it would have been impossible for the drivers of the other two cars to “react in sufficient time.”

Wearing a grey jumper with a collar and a white T-shirt underneath with black trousers, Mr O’Connell did not react for much of the sentence hearing. As details of his garda interview were outlined, he looked ahead, stifled sniffles and wiped his nose with his hand.

CCTV was shown in court, which showed Mr O’Connell sucking from a balloon, which had fast gas, also known as laughing gas, in it.

Sentencing has been adjourned to Tuesday, November 17.