A north Dublin firefighter who drank up to 15 pints before knocking down a man walking home from St Stephen’s Day celebrations has been caged for five-and-a-half years.
Derek Keane has no memory of getting into his van to drive home to Skerries in the early hours of December 27, 2016, a court heard.
The 40-year-old went to gardai later that day after he discovered his damaged vehicle and heard a man had been injured in a hit-and-run.
Callum Grimes was walking along a rural road when he was hit.
Described by his family as a "shy boy who loved life", Callum died less than seven months later in Beaumont Hospital after suffering catastrophic brain injuries.
The 28-year-old never regained consciousness following the collision.
In an emotional victim impact statement read out in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday, the victim’s father Mark Grimes said: “We struggle in the name of all that is decent Mr Keane to understand how you killed our son .
“As a nurse I believe those hours could have been crucial and wonder, if you had done the decent thing and got help immediately, would Callum be with us still?”
He criticised Keane’s delay in not pleading guilty to dangerous driving causing death until the first day of his trial in October, saying it had put the family through “two years of hell”.
During that time, the victim’s mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
She was too ill to attend court yesterday.
Judge Martin Nolan said it was a "lamentable and tragic case".
Keane, of The Cottage, Loughshinny, Skerries, also pleaded guilty to failing to provide assistance to Mr Grimes at the scene.
