The coroner for Limerick has endorsed calls for maximum sentences for dangerous driving causing death to be increased from 10 to 14 years and agreed it is illogical for driving disqualifications not to run consecutively to custodial sentences.
The submissions were made by Loraine Fehilly, through her barrister, at the inquest into the death of her husband, and father of their three children, Maurice Fehilly, held at Limerick Coroner’s Court, Kilmallock, on Wednesday.
Maurice Fehilly (42) of Seskin, Kilsheelan, and formerly of Clonmel, Co Tipperary, was knocked off his motorbike and killed by the driver of a van, who drove at speed and on the wrong side of the N24, at Dromkeen village, Co Limerick, on January 4th, 2020.
In March 2025, van driver Daniel Phillips (36) of Crecora Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston, Limerick, was jailed for five years and nine months and disqualified from driving for 10 years, after he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing Fehilly’s death.
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Phillips also admitted dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm to Thomas Tom Traynor, who had been travelling on another motorcycle in convoy with Fehilly. Traynor died in 2022 after he had undergone 22 surgeries following the collision.
A third biker, Tom Conroy, who was leading Traynor and Fehilly out in single file, on the correct side of the road and within the speed limit, escaped injury after he managed to swerve out of the way of Phillips’s van.
At the time, Phillips was being pursued at speed and on the wrong side of the N24 by a car being driven by Michael Stanners (42) of Pineview Gardens, Moyross, Limerick, who had three passengers with him.
Stanners, who pleaded not guilty to two counts of endangerment, was found guilty on both counts by a jury and jailed for 6½ years and disqualified from driving for 10 years.
The inquest heard a deposition written by Michael Brady, a motorist from Clonmel, who witnessed the fatal collision.
Brady said the van’s driving was “crazy” and that it was “speeding up” as it crossed on to the wrong side of the road, making the scenario “very distressing”.
A deposition written by Tom Traynor, before his death, read by Sgt David Delahunty, noted: “I looked up just as the van struck the right side of my bike, and I could see the driver’s face, and I’ve never forgotten the look of rage in his face; he had the steering wheel gripped like he was trying to bend it as if he was possessed.”
A Garda forensic examination of the scene could not find any indication that the van had applied its brakes in the moments before the fatal collision.
At the inquest, Loraine Fehilly’s barrister, Conor Cahill, said a “narrative verdict”, recording the “catastrophic nature” of Mr Fehilly’s injuries, was the “most appropriate” verdict.
Cahill also submitted that maximum sentences for dangerous driving causing death be increased from 10 to 14 years and that it is “not appropriate” for driving disqualifications to run concurrently to custodial sentences.
“There’s no point in somebody being disqualified from driving while they are in prison,” said Cahill.
Limerick coroner John McNamara agreed a “narrative verdict” was appropriate.
He added that the submissions in respect of sentencing and driving disqualifications were “outside the scope” of the role of a coroner.
“However, I certainly would agree with the submission. And I would go so far as to say that I would endorse the submission, but that’s as much as I can state on the record in relation to it, given the confines on the coroner’s court,” he said.
Speaking afterwards, Loraine Fehilly welcomed the coroner’s comments and said she and others would continue to campaign for “tougher penalties to act as a deterrent to dangerous driving”.
