A 55-year-old man has apologised to the family of a mother-of-two who died after his van veered onto the wrong side of the road in Co Kildare, killing her instantly.<\/p>\n
Junette Stronge, 49, had been driving her car back from her father’s 90th birthday, with her two young children in the back seat.<\/p>\n
The van veered over to her side of the road hitting and badly damaging the driver’s side.<\/p>\n
Her two children, aged three and six months, were uninjured in the incident.<\/p>\n
Michael Goggins from Oaklawns, Longwood in Co Meath, will serve nine months in jail after he admitted dangerous driving causing death on 2 January 2024.<\/p>\n
The incident occurred at around 6.20pm which occurred between Kilcock and Enfield at a time when the road conditions and visibility were described as good.<\/p>\n
Judge Elva Duffy said there was simply no explanation as to what had happened, but she said that Goggin’s remorse appeared to be genuine.<\/p>\n
She said no matter what she did, she “could not bring this beloved woman back”.<\/p>\n
Sentencing Goggins to a term of three years, she said she would fully suspend 27 months of that sentence, meaning he will serve nine months in custody.<\/p>\n
He was also disqualified from driving for four years.<\/p>\n
Junette a gentle soul – sister<\/p>\n
Garda Jennifer Finnegan from Celbridge Garda Station agreed that the driver of the van could not provide a clear explanation as to what had happened and as to why he had veered into the oncoming lane.<\/p>\n
He had written a letter to the family in which he accepted 100% responsibility and expressed remorse for the consequences of his driving that day.<\/p>\n
The court heard that there was no evidence of speeding or mobile phone use and that all of the vehicles involved in the collision had been in good condition.<\/p>\n
Ms Stronge’s sister Thelma told the court that the sudden and violent loss of her sister’s life had had an impact felt far beyond her immediate family.<\/p>\n
She said Junette had been a gentle soul with a mischievous smile and a sharp wit.<\/p>\n
They were ‘Irish twins’, she said, as she had been born on her sister’s first birthday.<\/p>\n
She was their “daddy’s pet”, often caring for their elderly father, whose 90th birthday she had been attending that day in Co Offaly.<\/p>\n
‘I lost my partner and my daughters, their mother’ – partner<\/p>\n
Her partner Steeve said having a family was all his wife had wanted and she had been devoted to her two daughters.<\/p>\n
Their youngest was just six months old when the accident happened and their lives changed in an instant.<\/p>\n
“I lost my partner and my daughters, their mother,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said her death had left a space that could never be filled.<\/p>\n
His oldest daughter would require therapeutic support over what had happened, he said.<\/p>\n
Paul Carroll SC said his client struggled with knowing exactly how he ended up on the wrong side of the road.<\/p>\n
He had a history of some medical issues that affected his mobility and a recent diagnosis of sleep apnea but the judge noted there was nothing to suggest that these were a factor in the incident.<\/p>\n
Afterwards the accused had been very upset, shaken and in shock and had cooperated with garda\u00ed, entering an early guilty plea.<\/p>\n
Judge Duffy noted that the family had wanted restorative justice but she said this would not provide the answers they were seeking about what happened.<\/p>\n
She commended the family for the beautiful words about their sibling and partner.<\/p>\n
There were audible tears in the court as the case concluded, with Goggins telling the judge he wanted to personally apologise to the family, saying “I’m sorry”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 55-year-old man has apologised to the family of a mother-of-two who died after his van veered onto…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-402444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}