A 29-year-old Monaghan man has been sentenced to four years in prison after he was convicted of dangerous driving causing the deaths of a Donegal woman, her unborn baby and two other people.
Kevin McArdle was more than three times over the drink-driving limit when he caused a three-car pile-up on a straight stretch of road near Carrickmacross last Christmas.
McArdle had drunk nine pints of beer and five glasses of brandy as he and his friends drove from pub to pub around Meath and Monaghan on 27 December.
At approximately 6.40pm, he was driving at speed on the incorrect side of the stretch of road near Carrickmacross.
One oncoming car managed to swerve to avoid his car, but those in the car behind did not have the opportunity to do so.
A 38-year-old pregnant woman was among those killed.
Roisin Connolly of Fanad and Grace Park, Drumcondra, Dublin, was driving on the Carrickmacross by-pass with her husband Stephen when their Seat car was struck in heavy rain by the BMW being driven by McArdle.
Mrs Connolly, who was five months pregnant, was killed. Doctors delivered her baby, Catherine, but she also died. Mrs Connolly’s husband survived with injuries.
The couple had just returned from spending Christmas in Fanad with Roisin’s mother Kathleen and her extended family.
Two passengers in the BMW, Glen Curtis and Paul Carroll, were also killed, while another man in that car was seriously injured but survived.
Supt Noel Cunningham told the Court McArdle was three and a half times over the legal drink driving limit.
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