‘It changed me forever’: Woman tells how she wanted to die following crash on Cork motorway

A Co Cork woman has told how she was in such pain that she wished she would die after a teenage driver crashed into her car at 170km/h..

Roisin Stakelum from Fermoy was on her way to Dublin Airport to go to Australia when she was involved in the crash on the M8 at Ballybeg, Mitchelstown, Co Cork.

The front seat passenger in the stolen car, Johnny Foley (16) died at the scene.

“I don’t think I fully understood the meaning of pain until this experience. The physical pain and suffering I experienced in the aftermath of the crash were excruciating. In the immediate aftermath of the crash, I was in so much pain, I wished I had died in the crash,” Ms Stakelum said in a victim impact statement at Cork Circuit Criminal Court where a 17-year-old youth pleaded guilty to a series of charges, including dangerous driving causing the death of Mr Foley and dangerous driving causing serious harm to Ms Stakelum on the M8 on July 1st, 2023.

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The youth, who cannot be named because he is a juvenile, also pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing serious harm to two other juveniles who were with him in the stolen car and to a count of endangerment.

In her statement, Ms Stakelum told how she was taken by ambulance to Cork University Hospital where she underwent eight hours of emergency surgery after she suffered several perforations to her small intestine in the crash that threatened her life.

She also catalogued her other injuries which included extensive trauma to her face that resulted in multiple fractures that required the insertion of several titanium plates. She also suffered a laceration that almost severed her lower lip, the loss of several teeth and multiple fractures to her left foot.

“The first time seeing my face in a mirror after the surgery, my face was so damaged and swollen and bruised I didn’t recognise my own reflection. I thought I was somebody else. That was terrifying. I couldn’t physically smile for months,” she told the court.

She told how she had spent a year planning a move to Australia where she had lined up a job as a Mental Health Occupational Therapist and planned to join up with her sister, who was living there, only for all her hopes of starting a new life to be destroyed in the crash.

“I began my journey just after midnight on the morning of July 1st, 2023. I never made it to the airport. I barely made it out of Fermoy. I was three days into my career break – that crash brought a violent end to my plans, all my hard work and dreams for a new life.

“What happened that night altered the course of my life and changed me forever. I’m haunted by the memory of the impact, by the memory of the headlights and what seemed like an explosion. I often think of how unlucky I was to be on that particular stretch of road at that exact moment.”

Ms Stakelum told how she was deeply affected to learn Johnny Foley had died in the collision and that realisation continues to haunt her as she revealed that “my heart goes out to his family and loved ones who grieve his loss”.

“The loss of a young life is an immense tragedy, and I cannot help but feel a profound sense of sorrow for the untimely passing of this young person. The weight of this tragedy serves as a reminder of how fragile life is and the irreversible impact car crashes can have on the lives of those involved.”

Det Garda John Murphy of Fermoy Garda station outlined the background to the case and how the juvenile and his four passengers arrived in Glanworth village at about 11.55pm on June 30th in a Toyota Corolla they had stolen in Cork City two days earlier and attempted to steal another car.

However, they were disturbed by the owner of the second car who raised the alarm and gardaí from Mitchelstown and Fermoy responded. The stolen car did a U-turn in Glanworth village and took off at speed with gardaí in pursuit.

The driver managed to lose the gardaí on a back road near Glanworth but after 30 minutes, they caught sight of the stolen car near at the outskirts of Mitchelstown. The driver then went around two roundabouts the wrong way at high speed.

Det Garda Murphy told how at the second of these roundabouts, the juvenile drove on to the M8 motorway and headed south on the northbound lane for over 6km at speeds in excess of 170km/h forcing five or six other motorists to take evasive action to avoid a collision.

Det Garda Murphy said that front seat passenger, Johnny Foley, was fatally injured when the stolen car crashed into Ms Stakelum’s car. Two of the three rear seat passengers suffered serious injuries including one youth who is still using a wheelchair more than six months on from the crash.

He said that the family of Mr Foley, who was from Spur Hill in Cork City, and the other two juveniles injured in the crash were all aware of the case going ahead and they had been invited to make victim impact statements but had opted not to do so.

Defence counsel Jane Hyland SC submitted a number of reports to Judge Helen Boyle outlying the accused’s troubled and dysfunctional background where he had been exposed to a lot of violence from his father from a young age while his mother also had serious addiction issues.

Ms Hyland said that the youth had gone into care at the age of 15 but since being detained at Oberstown Detention Campus was doing well, having completed a course in victim empathy as she pleaded for leniency, citing his youth, his remorse and his guilty pleas as mitigating factors.

Judge Boyle paid tribute to Ms Stakelum for her courage. She also thanked Ms Hyland for the various reports on the accused and adjourned sentencing until February 12th.

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