Man jailed for high-speed crash that caused seatbelt to snap from force of impact

A young man has received a two-year prison sentence for a high-speed collision of such force that his brother’s seatbelt snapped, sending him through the windscreen of the car and leaving him with life-altering injuries.

Gerard Duffy McAndrew (24), of Ben View, Rathcorbally, Monilea, Westmeath, had videoed himself drinking a bottle of wine and driving at high speeds following a day of alcohol consumption in Roscommon.

His biological brother, Stephen Murphy (29), had been adopted at a young age, and the two had only recently reconnected when Mr Duffy McAndrew caused the crash which resulted in his front seat passenger losing a limb.

He appeared before Judge Keenan Johnson at Mullingar Circuit Court, where he was sentenced to five years in prison with the final three years suspended for seven years, subject to a number of strict conditions.

Judge Johnson described the incident as a tragedy, but noted the level of “bravado” and the cavalier attitude the accused had towards driving. He said the court had no option but to impose a custodial sentence.

The offence attracted a nine-year prison sentence, he said, but noting the genuine remorse of the accused, his previous good character, and other mitigating factors such as a plea of guilty, he reduced that to five years.

The final three years of that term were suspended on the condition that he does not reoffend or consume alcohol or drugs for seven years. He also disqualified Mr Duffy McAndrew from driving for four years.

Previously, Judge Johnson said the case is one of the worst cases of dangerous driving he has ever had to deal with, as it has “every aggravating factor in the book: drink, drugs, speed and catastrophic injuries”. Mr Duffy McAndrew was also driving without insurance, tax or an NCT.

“It has to be said, this was an absolutely horrific case and a tragedy of gigantic proportions for all involved,” the judge said.

At a sentence hearing last month, Sergeant Sean Brehan of Castlepollard Garda Station outlined to the court that, at approximately 2.35am, gardaí responded to reports of a serious injury single vehicle collision on the N4 at Rathowen village, in which the passenger had been flung from the car and was unresponsive on the road.

Several Garda crews, ambulance crews and fire crews attended the scene.

CCTV footage of the vehicle speeding through Ballinalack and colliding with trees in Rathowen estimated it to be travelling speeds of over 150kmh in a zone with a speed limit of 50kmh. It came to rest 135m away from the point of collision.

Later inspections of the remains of the vehicle showed the needle of the speedometer to be frozen at 195kmh.

Photographs submitted to the court showed damage to a curb, tyre marks, damage to two trees, and various parts of the Audi scattered on the road, as well as damage done to a number of tiles on the roofs of private, two-storey dwellings.

The engine of the Audi had separated from the car, and the battery had gone through the front grille of a Toyota Auris parked on the street, and lodged in its engine. The Toyota was written off as a result.

Mr McAndrew had not been wearing a seatbelt at the time of the collision. He was found still in the driver’s seat, leaning over the centre console, with a faint pulse. Fire crews had to cut the doors and the roof off what was left of the vehicle to get him out.

He was admitted to Tullamore Regional Hospital with a suspected head injury, a fracture to the bone in his neck at the base of his skull and a fracture to his right shoulder. Toxicology reports showed him to be more than three times over the legal limit for alcohol. He also had cannabis in his system.

Mr Murphy was wearing a seatbelt, but it snapped on the force of the collision, sending him through the windscreen and on to the road.

Paramedics arriving at the scene observed severe injuries to Mr Murphy, and the bone sticking out of his left leg. In a statement to gardaí, one of those paramedics said she had never seen leg injuries like it before and his legs had to be bound together because they were so badly damaged.

The injuries were catastrophic and resulted in Mr Murphy’s left leg being amputated above the knee. He also suffered multiple fractured ribs, a fractured sternum and a punctured lung. His right ankle had “exploded”, the court heard, and his shin bone was broken.

Gardaí carrying out an analysis of Mr Duffy McAndrew’s phone extracted a number of videos that were taken by him on the night of the collision.

One such video taken approximately 50 minutes before the collision showed a bottle of wine in the accused man’s hand while he drove on a narrow road, using his other hand to record the video on his phone. A caption on the video read ‘Roscommons a bad influence. Beer steer ago’.

The camera pans over to the passenger seat, where Mr Murphy can be seen, sleeping on his side, facing away from the camera with a seatbelt on and his seat fully reclined.

Mr Duffy McAndrew then turns the phone on himself to show him drinking from the bottle of wine. The speedometer in the footage shows him doing an approximate speed of 80kmh.

Further investigations revealed that Mr Duffy McAndrew’s insurance policy had been cancelled in October 2024. The vehicle tax had expired in March of 2024, and the NCT had expired just over a month prior to the collision.

The court heard that Mr Duffy McAndrew had gone to see his brother after the breakup of Mr Murphy’s relationship in an effort to “clear his head”. The pair had gone to Portrunny Harbour on the shore of Lough Ree in Roscommon and that was the last thing Mr Duffy McAndrew remembered before the accident.

The maximum sentence for dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm is 10 years imprisonment, with a mandatory minimum driving disqualification of four years.