A Co Antrim driver whose front-seat passenger friend suffered serious injuries when he crashed his van while being twice the legal drink-drive limit was handed a 14-month sentence today.

Ordering Ryan McCurdy (23) to serve six months in prison and eight months on supervised licence, Judge Alistair Devlin warned that those who choose to drive while over the limit “do so at his or her peril” and that custodial sentences most flow to “
reflect the public abhorrence at drink-driving and to deter others”.

“By choosing to embark, as you did, in the early hours on what appears to be a 15-mile drive through unlit country roads with that level of alcohol in your system, you put the lives of not just yourself and your front-seat passenger at risk of death or
serious injury, [but] you were also prepared and did risk the lives of other road users,” declared the judge.

McCurdy, from Knocknacarry Court in Cushendun, had earlier entered a guilty plea to causing grievous bodily injury by careless driving with excess alcohol on August 14, 2021.

The court heard how McCurdy and his victim had been drinking in the Saffron Bar in Waterfoot when, with the bar closing, they decided to head to Ballycastle and so got into McCurdy’s VW Caddy van.

Judge Devlin outlined, however, that on the way to Ballycastle the van struck a grass verge and overturned, throwing both the defendant and his front-seat passenger from the vehicle.

Police and an emergency services were called to the scene, but when McCurdy was spoken to, he claimed that a man named Oisin had in fact been driving. However, it soon transpired that McCurdy had been behind the wheel.

A roadside breathalyser test gave an alcohol reading of 78, more than twice the legal limit of 35, and the judge told the court that the evidential sample taken more than two hours later still put McCurdy at one and a half times the limit.

Meanwhile, the victim was taken to the Causeway Hospital where he had to be sedated as doctors treated him for multiple fractures to his ribs, shoulder blade, feet and toes, as well as a collapsed and lacerated lung and “significant lacerations and
deep abrasions” to his scalp, arms and legs.

Judge Devlin revealed that the victim spent just over three weeks in hospital and when McCurdy was formally interviewed by police, “he made full admissions”.

Judge Devlin said that a “key issue” regarding the sentence was the level of alcohol McCurdy had consumed before deciding to get behind the wheel of the van.

Highlighting that sentences where death or injury has occurred, if alcohol is a factor, even when the driving is careless, that raises the maximum sentence to 14 years — the same as it is for death or injury by dangerous driving.

He also emphasised the need for deterrent sentences “to reflect the public’s abhorrence” for drink-driving and that, as such, matters of personal mitigation carried less weight.

In McCurdy’s case, Judge Devlin conceded there was such personal mitigation, revealing that, as well as a clear record, good work record and a plethora of testimonials which spoke to his good character, it was also a fact that he was experiencing an “
acrimonious and stressful” battle in the family court.

Despite defence submissions that it was an exceptional case, Judge Devlin said he could find no such elements to support that hypothesis, so, following sentencing guidelines, a custodial sentence must follow.

In addition to the 14-month sentence, Judge Devlin imposed a three-year driving ban.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/courts/drink-driver-jailed-for-causing-serious-injury-to-friend-in-co-antrim-crash/a1588598146.html

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