Widow of pensioner killed in horror road crash tells court she is 'trapped in a nightmare'

A widow has told a court that her life is broken beyond repair and that she is trapped in a nightmare following the death of her husband in a road traffic accident last year.

At Ennis Circuit Court, Helga Himmelsbach delivered a searing victim impact statement concerning the death of her husband, Jerry O’Connor (71) on July 27 2023.

Before commencing her victim impact statement, Ms Himmelsbach placed a photo of Mr O’Connor and a candle beside the witness box facing Judge Francis Comerford.

Mr O’Connor died at the scene - on the N67 leading out of Ballyvaughan in County Clare - after a French motorist, Olivier Le Bozec, crashed into Mr O’Connor’s Yamaha motorbike while Mr Le Bozec was driving on the wrong side of the road.

Mr Le Bozec, aged 42, of Rue Georges Cadoudal, Locoal Mendon, France was on the second day of a family holiday in Ireland with his wife and eight year old son and they were driving to Aillwee Caves outside Ballyvaughan when the crash occurred on a blind bend at 10.30am.

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An eyewitness, June Rouine, who was driving behind Mr O’Connor said that “he had no chance to react” before impact and that his body slid under Mr Le Bozec’s French registered Renault.

Mr Le Bozec pleaded guilty to the dangerous driving causing the death of Mr O’Connor and on Friday Mr Le Bozec walked free from court after Judge Francis Comerford imposed a fully-suspended prison sentence.

Judge Comerford also imposed a four year driving ban on Mr Le Bozec and the terms of his suspended prison term are on condition that he pays a €7,000 fine within 12 months.

He said an aggravating factor in the case was that Mr Le Bozec was driving on the wrong side of the road for a long time without noticing.

However, Judge Comerford said that there were a number of mitigating factors in the case. He said that there was no evidence of speed in the case and no evidence of drink driving.

He noted that there was a guilty plea at the earliest opportunity and that Mr Le Bozec, who has no previous convictions, had co-operated with gardai.

“Mitigation is as complete as it could be in a case and the highest measure of mitigation does apply in this case," he commented.

Judge Comerford noted that Mr Le Bozec had apologised from the witness box in court.

Speaking through a translator, he said: “My wife and I deeply regret what happened and this will be with us until the end of our lives.”

He added: “What I am going to say today I know will not mitigate the pain endured by the family of Jerry O'Connor but it is important that I say it. We will always think about the man who died that day until the end of our lives unfortunately. We are truly, deeply and sincerely sorry for what happened. I will never, ever forget what happened on that tragic day.” 

The court heard that Mr Le Bozec’s wife, an oncology nurse, tried to revive Mr O’Connor at the scene.

Imposing the suspended 17-month prison term, Judge Comerford commented that the culpability in this case is not as high as many other cases of dangerous driving causing death.

He said: “It is more appropriate that the punishment does not involve an immediate prison sentence… I know that this won’t satisfy a lot of people in this court."

Regarding the fine, he said: “No matter the figure I pick, it won’t be commensurate with the damage caused.”

In her victim impact statement, Ms Himmelsbach said following the death of Jerry “instead of enjoying our days together, there is now only loneliness, pain and fear," adding: “Instead of sharing life, there is no more togetherness, no more sharing, no more intimacy, no more chatting over a cup of coffee, no more shared meals, nothing. My days begin in loneliness and end in loneliness.”

She further stated: “All of this because one man couldn’t abide by two basic rules of the road - drive on the correct side of the road and appropriately to the conditions of the road. Nothing can undo the suffering this dangerous driver has caused. Still I hope that he will get to feel the consequences of his crime in a very palpable way and through that he can atone and learn to take responsibility for his actions."

Ms Himmelsbach said from the moment she became aware that Jerry was killed by Monsieur Olivier Le Bozec’s driving on the day “my life has altered in the most destructive way so that now I am just contemplating on how to survive on my own".

She added: “This defendant does not know me but he has ruined my life utterly, my past, my present and my future. I cannot yet bear to think of my past life with Jerry, those memories are still way too raw.

“My present life is so very, very desolate without him. I still feel that the defendant abused the hospitality of our host community of north Clare when he engaged in his criminal behaviour which ultimately resulted in the death of my beloved Jerry.

“The shock has not abated and still sends my heart racing and keeps me in a perpetual sense of being trapped in a nightmare.”

The couple operated the Burren Wellness Centre together and Ms Himmelsbach said: “Jerry was a beautiful, kind and multi-talented man and we loved and cared for each other that a level I never thought existed. No other person has touched my life more deeply.

“While the defendant killed any husband, he also destroyed the very essence of my own life and put me under a life sentence of loss, despair, worry and pain. I must now face every single day alone, without my closest confidante, without the person I trusted with every fibre of my being."

She added: “From the moment when life was knocked out of Jerry, and nearly each and every bone was shattered in his body, my life was also shattered.”

Mr O’Connor was a father of four adult children and three grand-children from a previous relationship. Ms Himmelsbach said that the two got engaged on this day, November 8th in Hawaii in 2007.