Carlow man John Doran, who was paralyzed in a crash, has died two months after accused Clonakilty motorist Pearl O’Sullivan pleaded guilty

Accused motorist Pearl O’Sullivan, of Ballinmaceon House, Clonakilty, Co. Cork, pleaded guilty to careless driving causing serious harm to John Doran.

The injured party became a resident of Teach Saoirse Hostel in Olart in early 2023, having previously lived in Enniscort at St John of God and then Summerhill House.

Originally from County Carlow, he was a passenger in the body of a HSE Peugeot traveling home towards Olart on the main road from Enniscorthy on July 25 last year.

The car smashed into the side of a BMW X5 SUV driven by Ms O’Sullivan as she pulled out of a side road at Corbally Cross.

Mr Doran was paralyzed from the neck down in the collision, which was investigated by Garda Keith Arnold.

Police told Judge James McCourt they found the injured man was “non-verbal” due to an intellectual disability.

He was taken to a hospital in Wexford and then transferred to The Mater in Dublin, his health deteriorated and he died on 7 September 2023, less than two months after the accident.

Suzanne Roe, the sister of the deceased, made a heartfelt statement about the impact on the victims

She remembered her brother as a gentle giant who needed special care, who loved Abba and trips to the sea, whose hero was Santa Claus.

He was happy and healthy at the time of the collision in Corballa but died of a broken heart, Ms Roe said.

Her brother didn’t understand what had happened, she explained, and he felt he must have done something wrong.

“Day after day, the life disappeared from him,” she recalled. “His last few weeks were torture. No words can describe the nightmare we are living in now and from which we will never recover.”

She told how their grief-stricken father, Tom Doran, died of a broken heart not long after his son’s death.

Attorney Brian Mulvaney stressed that his client took full responsibility for what happened after she drove past the stop sign and onto the main road.

The production manager of a Cork company, she was in the Monazher district that day to look at the horse.

She was joined in the courtroom by her two teenage children.

Judge James McCourt thanked Ms Rowe for her eloquent testimony and commented that “these are particularly tragic cases”.

He noted that Ms O’Sullivan had never been in trouble before and felt that the court could not treat her as someone who needed to be taught a lesson.

He banned her from driving for a year from May 1 and suspended her sentence for two years.

The defendant agreed to make a donation of €5,000 to WRIDS HSE Wexford Residential and Intellectual Disability Service for adults with severe or profound intellectual disabilities.

This was done at the suggestion of Suzanne Rowe, who mentioned that her late mother, Stella, had been actively involved in the creation of WRIDS.