Anthony Handley jailed for dangerous driving causing death

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Anthony Handley was jailed for two years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. Judge Pat McCartan also banned him from driving for ten years. The proceedings were reported on 10 May 2016.

He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of Olivia Dunne and serious bodily harm to Éabha Dunne.

The collision happened in Balbriggan on 17 January 2014. Olivia Dunne, 31, was killed instantly when Handley's car struck her and her baby's pram. Éabha Dunne suffered serious injuries, including internal injuries and leg fractures.

The court was told Garda experts considered driver fatigue the most likely cause, with no evidence of distraction or a medical condition causing the loss of control. Handley told gardaí he had slept for four hours the previous night, which was not unusual for him, and had not felt tired that day. He accepted he could have fallen asleep at the wheel.

Defence counsel Colm O’Briain said the prosecution had accepted that Handley had no conscious control over his driving at the time. He sought a suspended sentence, arguing that the sudden onset of sleep was not objectively foreseeable.

Counsel said Handley was extremely remorseful and was the main carer for his ill wife despite their separation. He explained that medical investigations took 13 months to produce reports, delaying the guilty plea, and asked the court to treat it as an early plea.

The judge acknowledged Handley's impeccable record but imposed immediate custody. He rejected the defence's sudden-sleep explanation because expert opinion indicated tiredness developed gradually. He treated Handley's failure to respond to approaching fatigue as aggravating, while stressing that alcohol, drugs and speed were absent and that the aggravation was less serious than those factors.