Australian death crash driver jailed for three years

A 31 year-old Slane man who was extradited to Australia to face charges over a 2007 car crash in which two people were killed has been jailed for almost three years.
Eamonn Driver was driving a car that collided with another vehicle in the Perth suburb of Bedford on 31st October 2007. Two passengers, 20-year-old Colm Reilly and 22-year-old Kiara Duncan, both from Kentstown, died in the crash.
Driver was charged with two counts of dangerous driving causing death and was extradited to Australia to face the charges in August.
Driver’s hatchback car was carrying six passengers at the time of the crash and he had been drinking beforehand, Perth’s District Court heard.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of dangerous driving causing death.
The car careered across the median strip, flipped onto its roof and collided with an oncoming car being driven by a 63-year-old woman, who escaped the crash without serious injury.
In sentencing, Judge Richard Keen said Driver had displayed egregious disregard for the safety of himself and others.
Eamonn Driver returned home before being charged with any offence but he was subsequently charged by summons with two counts of dangerous driving, occasioning death. A warrant was issued when he failed to appear in court in 2009. Driver’s reason for failing to appear in court was that he was recovering from a motorcycle accident in Ireland and could not travel.
Police pursued his extradition and Minister for Justice Alan Shatter ordered Driver to surrender to Australian authorities and he appeared in court in Perth in August.
Driver has been sentenced to two years and 50 weeks in prison. It is understood he will be eligible for parole after serving half his sentence.