Carlow van driver pleads guilty over hit-and-run that left hurler injured

A VAN DRIVER who knocked down a man as he was standing at his car door on the main street in a Carlow town will be sentenced later. Michael Murphy (50) of Woodlawn Park, Borris, Carlow, pleaded guilty at Carlow Circuit Criminal Court to careless driving causing serious harm to Denis Murphy on the Main Street in Borris on 5 December 2022.

Other charges, including driving under the influence of an intoxicant and leaving the scene of accident, were taken into account. The court heard that Michael Murphy was just over twice the legal limit.

The court heard that Denis Murphy, a talented hurler with both the county team and Mount Leinster Rangers, was left with a dislocated elbow, three missing teeth and a traumatic brain injury after he was knocked into the air and landed between two parked cars.

It was a dark and wet night and Michael Murphy continued to drive out of the town without stopping his vehicle. A passing motorist who happened to be driving in the opposite direction of Michael Murphy followed the man out of the town while phoning the gardaí to alert them to the accident.

He had seen Denis Murphy standing at the driver’s door of his own vehicle. Denis Murphy was facing him and the van was driving up behind the victim. He said he expected the van to stop, but it never did. It struck Mr Murphy and continued driving.

A victim impact statement, which was later described by David Roberts BL, defending Michael Murphy, as “remarkable” and “extremely benevolent” was read into the record. Denis Murphy concluded his statement by saying “how fortunate” he is to be alive and to able to walk and talk.

He said he bore Michael Murphy “no ill will” and acknowledged that “accidents occur” and “people make mistakes”, but “as long as lessons are learned, that is all I can ask for”.

The statement also outlined the long road to recovery that Denis Murphy had to take because of the injury to his brain. Mr Murphy, a maths teacher, spent a period of time in intensive care due to the bleeding that was detected in his brain and his entire hospital stay was nine days.

He said he needed constant supervision and guidance in the days that followed his release from hospital, and for the first time in his life he felt helpless. He said the superficial damage healed and he got dental work to repair his teeth, but he had difficulty completing daily tasks due to the brain injury.

Mr Murphy did not return to work as a teacher for six months after the accident and struggled with regaining his memory. He forgot simple things like which side of the bed he sleeps on or where the tea bags were kept in his home.

“My life as I knew has changed completely,” he said, adding that he has no recollection of what happened to him.

He said by the time he returned to work to teach Leaving Certificate maths, he felt like he had built back his memory and managed his brain fatigue, and he was overjoyed that he found he still had the ability to teach maths. But he added that, despite his recovery to date, he can still experience episodes which tends to be triggered by stressful situations. He said these episodes could leave him incapacitated for hours or days and sometimes even the smallest tasks could lead to a collapse.

Mr Murphy said that following the birth of his daughter he deliberately slowed down his life, stepping away from GAA training and all other activities to focus solely on work and family commitments. He said for several months it went well, but then another stressful situation would arise, or he would become overwhelmed and it would all start up again.

“It feels that my brain is a chaos,” he said, adding that this makes it difficult to be alone caring for his daughter as he can never be sure when an episode might arise.

Garda Angela Togher told Niall Storan BL, prosecuting, that the witness to the incident later told gardaí that he saw Denis Murphy being struck from behind, but the van made no attempt to stop and drove past him. He followed the van and called emergency services. The van pulled over and the driver got out and approached him, but as he did not want to interact with the man he stayed on his phone and didn’t speak to him.

He described the diver as stumbling and returning to his van. He continued to follow the van, but he was speaking to the gardaí on the phone and they advised him to stop following the van and return to the scene of the accident.

Gardaí were told by other witnesses that the driver appeared to be intoxicated. They traced the registration of the van back to the owner, who was Michael Murphy’s employer, and ultimately went to Murphy’s family home.

Michael Murphy was not at home but gardaí were provided with his mobile number. Garda Togher made contact with him, and he told her where he was. She initially had trouble locating him, but ultimately found him parked up in the van.

Garda Togher said she suspected Murphy had been drinking and he was arrested for being in charge of a vehicle in a public place while intoxicated.

Murphy was later interviewed. He said he hadn’t seen the victim and said it was “a miserable night”. He said people started to phone to tell him what had happened.

“If I had known I had hit a person, I definitely would have stopped,” Murphy told gardaí.

Garda Togher agreed with Mr Roberts that while Murphy left the scene, he did remain within a couple of miles of the accident in the general locality.

She accepted that Murphy and the victim “know each other to see” and Murphy had been consistently asking about the victim and how he was.

Mr Roberts said his client lives with both his elderly parents and assists them in bringing them to hospital appointments. He works six days a week as a general tradesman.

Counsel confirmed that while “alcohol was an unfortunate feature of the offence”, it is not an issue for Murphy in that he does not have an addiction to alcohol.

He asked the court to accept his client’s co-operation with the investigation following his arrest, his plea of guilty and the fact that he has not come to adverse attention since the accident.

Murphy had written a letter to Denis Murphy outlining how “deeply sorry” he is for what happened. “There is nothing that I can do that will undo the impact it has had on your life. I should have been more careful, and I will always regret it,” it said.

He said he had since undertaken a driver safety course and, while he acknowledged that this “does not change what happened, I want to make sure that it will never happen again”.

A number of character references were handed into the court.

Defence barrister David Roberts made reference to the victim impact statement saying that Mr Murphy “appears to show great forgiveness and appears to be showing a forgiving attitude”. He said the offence represented “a misjudgement in getting behind the wheel”, before he advised the court that Michael Murphy had €3,000 in court as an expression of his remorse.

Judge Sinéad McMullan said she needed time to consider the case and remanded Murphy on continuing bail until the next sitting of Carlow Circuit Criminal Court in November, when a sentence date will be fixed.