THE FACT OF THE MATTER
BY PAUL HOPKINS
The 18-year-old man behind the horrific death of Grace Lynch, just 16, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and will be back before the courts in May, presumably for sentencing. I say man, because that’s what he legally is – old enough to vote, to go into a pub, to drive a car, to join the army. Old enough to know better. Saying “sorry” in no way excuses this man’s reckless and deadly deed.
That the tightening up and policing of the illegal use of scrambler bikes – which have been causing problems in communities for years – is to be called Grace’s Law is of little consolation to her heart-broken family.
Too many public spaces are ridden with riders tearing around estates on these scramblers: they need to be taken off the pavements and the parks and the football pitches and everywhere where they are used, not just to annoy but, to endanger and frighten people who have to live with the inevitable outcome of years of lax policing and absolute indifference to the safety of others.
In 2018, Ilabek Avetian (38), sunbathing in a park near Darndale, Dublin, received life-changing brain injuries and lost an eye when a 15-year-old boy scrambler ran over his head. Last year a €5.2 million settlement was reached in the High Court.
“My son Seán was 18 when he was killed,” Mags Murphy told the Irish Independent last week. “It was his first time riding a scrambler when he collided with a pillar outside a neighbour’s house.” In June 2023, Sean Murphy (18) of Tallaght died as a result of multiple traumatic injuries sustained in the single-vehicle crash. a short distance from his home.
“Seán was out with a friend and they bumped into another friend who owned this scrambler,” his mother said. “He had never been on one before and decided he wanted to try it, so he asked could he have a go on it. We still don’t know how the crash occurred but he ended up colliding with a pillar.”
Questions about the antisocial use of scramblers have been asked in the Dáil since 2005. In 2010, then Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern, in reply to a parliamentary question, said that Section 41 of the Road Traffic Act 1994 allowed Gardaí to seize scrambler motorbikes in breach of road traffic legislation.
It has taken the death of Grace Lynch to jolt the Government into making a meaningful response to a long-running problem for which there has been plenty of legislation but seemingly little real measures to stamp out the dangerous and illegal use of scrambler bikes. A motion for an outright ban has been passed unanimously. Besides the ban, the motion also proposed an amnesty for scrambler users to hand in the machines; a refund scheme for those who surrendered the motorbikes; and stricter powers of seizing and impounding machines.
Further restrictions for e-scooters are also planned, with it being pointed out that accidents involving their use are now the cause of “most traumatic brain injuries in children”.
Unless Gardai – and more pertinently parents – follow the letter of the proposed tightening of the law, our dangerous coddling of criminal behaviour will inevitably lead to more deaths unless a serious course of correction is meted out.
Are we raising a whole generation who are increasingly not required to take responsibility for their own actions? Among some people, emphasis on personal responsibility above all else – and effective discipline to ensure it is fostered – is viewed as something of an anathema.
Why do so many parents allow their teenage sons access to these bikes, sons who have neither the maturity, the sense, nor the decency not to use them as a source of deadly behaviour? The argument that fractured families and absent fathers have a big impact on the rise of lawlessness is no excuse.
Our laws need to be tougher and reflect the crime. The maximum sentence the man who killed Grace Lynch can serve, according to Irish law, is 10 years. If sentenced to such, he will be out in seven years. He’ll be 25. Grace was just 16, a girl with her whole life ahead of her. On the way to meet her boyfriend Harry in the afternoon. Crossing at a green light until a man on a scrambler bike went through a red one.
Said Mags Murphy: “When I saw footage of Grace’s mother Siobhán, I was sobbing. When she said her daughter was mangled … I know what she means … my Seán was mangled as well…”
