A 39-year-old man has been given a three-year prison sentence and banned from driving for 20 years for his part in a car crash which claimed the life of a 52-year-old retired schoolteacher.

Jason Gormley, with an address in Rathlin in Castleconnell, Co Limerick, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of Aidan Lawless.

The accident happened on the evening of 4 October 2009 on the main Limerick to Tipperary road about 3km from Limerick city.

Mr Gormley was driving an Audi 27 SUV when it collided head-on on the wrong side of the road, crashing into a Ford Mondeo driven by the late Mr Lawless.

He and his wife Kathleen were returning home to Clonmel having left their daughter Rachel to college in Limerick earlier that day.

Limerick Circuit Court heard today that Gormley left the scene of the accident and effectively went on the run.

He went first to his home in Castleconnell to change his clothes before later hiding in his partner's family home in Clonlara, Co Clare.

Gardaí searched for Gormley extensively from the night of the accident and he was eventually found wandering bare-chested and barefoot by a garda near Ardnacrusha around noon the following day.

He was immediately taken into custody.

There was also evidence Gormley had been drinking most of the day in a pub in Boher in the hours leading up to the accident, and that he left the pub moments before the crash happened.

In a victim impact statement to the court, Kathleen Lawless said her family's happy home life had been brought to an abrupt end and life would never be the same again after the crash.

She appealed to people not to drink and drive because of the horrific effect it had had on her and her children Rachel and Aidan Jnr.

Judge Carroll Moran imposed a three-year sentence and banned Gormley from driving for 20 years.