Donegal man jailed for fatal crash near Rathmullen

 
A 25-year-old Donegal man has been sentenced to four years in prison with the last year suspended after pleading guilty to dangerous driving causing the deaths of his two friends.
Noel Carr, of Newmills, Letterkenny, was driving a white Honda Integra on 3 August 2013  when it struck a tree, then a bridge and ended up, upside down in the garden of a house.
19-year-old Shaun Graham and 21-year-old Matthew Crawford were killed, Mr Carr and another passenger were injured.
Letterkenny Circuit Court was told that a Garda investigation found that the crash which happened just outside Rathmullen was caused by driver error and excessive speed .
There had been no attempt to reduce speed coming into a right-hand bend while the car was on the wrong side of the road.
Carr told the families of the young men who died that he knows no words will ever make up for what he had done, his actions were stupid and irresponsible.
If he had not been driving dangerously Mr Graham and Mr Crawford would still be alive.
The court was told that Carr had four previous convictions, one for careless driving, one for assault causing harm and two public order offences.
Judge John O’Hagan said that this case, like all cases in Donegal involving young people and cars, was most distressing.
Before sentencing Judge O’Hagan referred to the case in which eight people had died in Clonmany and the sentence handed down by the Court of Criminal Appeal of eight years with four suspended.
He sentenced Noel Carr to four years in prison with the last year suspended and disqualified him from driving for ten years.