Man gets five years for killing two in driving accident
Two young men were killed in car crash by a motorist who drove “like a bat out of hell” on the wrong side of the road after having six bottles and five cans of beer at home followed by seven pints, two vodkas, three shots and a line of cocaine in a pub.
Anthony Long, aged 28, of Leadington, Leamlara, Co Cork, was sentenced by Judge Patrick J. Moran to five years and disqualified from driving for 15 years at Cork Circuit Criminal Court today.
He previously pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the deaths of two young men. Long fled the scene and walked six miles on a back road to his home before being arrested at the time.
Judge Moran said of the deceased and their two partners who were travelling from Waterford to Cork: “They were a group of young people hoping to go away for a pleasant weekend out of the country. This all ended on the road.”
To the accused, the judge said: “You were going in the wrong direction to your home, you didn’t know where you were going. You left the scene of the accident. Perhaps you were dazed, perhaps you were concussed, perhaps you had so much drink you didn’t know what you were doing.”
Brendan Donnelly, aged 24, from Beech Drive, Greenfields, Waterford, but who was originally from Birr, Co Offaly, and 26-year-old Lee Salkeld, from Fairfield Park, Old Tramore Road, Waterford, were killed when a car driven by Long crashed into their car at Castlemartyr, east Cork, on October 26.
The deceased and their partners had been on their way to Cork Airport in the early hours of the morning to get a flight to Amsterdam for a short holiday.
Detective Sergeant Joe O’Connor said Laura Connolly, Brendan Donnelly’s partner, was driving and she described seeing Long’s Ford Mondeo coming at them on the incorrect side of the road “like a bat out of hell.”
Long had been at a fancy-dress party that night.
Anthony Long said: “Words will never describe how truly and deeply sorry I am. I will never forgive myself for what I have done."
