The Court of Appeal has reduced Marcin Kazinski’s driving disqualification from ten years to three years following a Waterford crash that left his 12-year-old daughter with catastrophic injuries.
Kazinski had pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm and to driving while over the alcohol limit. The collision happened near Cappoquin at about midday on December 23, 2011.
Kazinski was driving his daughter Monica and her friends home after a sleepover. None of the occupants was wearing a seat belt. The evidence suggested he turned to speak to his daughter, became distracted and collided with a pick-up truck when he looked back towards the road.
There was no allegation of excessive speed. However, Kazinski’s blood-alcohol reading was 167mg per 100ml of blood, just over three times the legal limit. It was accepted that he had not drunk that day but had consumed alcohol heavily the previous day.
Monica suffered severe injuries, spent about three weeks in a coma and was later described in medical reports as having spastic quadriplegia.
At sentencing in Waterford Circuit Court in April 2013, Judge Keenan Johnson imposed a four-year sentence suspended for five years for dangerous driving. Kazinski was also ordered to complete 240 hours of community service for the alcohol offence. Neither part was challenged on appeal.
The only issue was the ten-year driving ban.
The Court of Appeal said the sentencing hearing had understandably focused on avoiding custody and on the family’s circumstances. The duration of the driving ban had received much less attention.
Kazinski’s wife was learning to drive because the family needed transport for Monica’s medical appointments, physiotherapy and visits to the National Rehabilitation Centre. The appeal court found that keeping Kazinski off the road for ten years would make sharing those caring responsibilities more difficult and would ultimately disadvantage Monica.
It therefore ruled that the disqualification should not exceed the statutory period and reduced it to three years.