‘Would you really want that for your family?’ Donegal road safety show aims shock and change hearts

Seán is 17, has a new girlfriend and has just passed his driving test.

“Who’s going to be scoring tonight?” the actor playing him asks as he struts across the stage in the Aura Leisure Centre in Letterkenny, Co Donegal.

On the screen behind, his fictional night out unfolds. Seán revs the engine as he speeds out of a car park; on a narrow country road he is going too fast, loses control and hits a tree.

His girlfriend is flung from the car, dead, while Seán has suffered life-changing injuries and will never walk again.

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“It’s frightening, and it’s happening here in the northwest all too often,” says the compere, Charlie Collins. “Big accidents. People losing their lives or being critically injured.

“Who’s to blame? The research shows it’s young men between 17 and 24, mainly, simply because they think they’re better drivers than they are, they don’t pay attention to the road conditions, to the speed they’re travelling at, and they don’t care about the people who are in the car with them.”

Listening are 3,000 young people from schools in Donegal, Derry and Tyrone who earlier this month attended Donegal County Council’s Road Safe Road Show, which aims to “positively influence” teenagers before they pass their driving test or start travelling as passengers in cars driven by their friends.

“When you start driving, there are two words you need to remember: respect and responsibility,” Sgt Mark Traynor, head of road policing in Letterkenny, tells them.

‘You’re responsible’

“You’re responsible for your actions. You’re responsible for how you drive, the speed you drive at... you must have respect for yourself and everybody else in the car with you.

In the 15 years the roadshow has been running, 30 young people who attended it have gone on to die in road accidents.

“Look after them. Don’t take drink or drugs and drive. Reduce your speed. Wear your seatbelts and stay off the phones. You’re far better a few minutes late than dead on time.”

In the 15 years the roadshow has been running, 30 young people who attended it have gone on to die in road accidents.

“Our ultimate aim is to have all schoolchildren see the show before they leave school,” says Brian O’Donnell, the council’s road-safety officer. “How will we measure the success of it? If we can save one life.”

Though Seán’s story is fictional, none of the speakers have to make anything up. Over the course of almost two hours, Traynor and other members of the emergency services take the audience through the graphic, horrifying reality of responding to a crash like this, and share their own experiences of the multiple similar situations they have faced.

“Two young lads were lying outside of the car, lifeless,” says fire officer Joe Friel. “There were two people, possibly a third, in the back of the car, he [the paramedic] couldn’t tell how many people were in that car, he couldn’t tell me if they were alive or dead, that’s how badly damaged that car was.”

He stamps his foot on the ground. “If you can imagine a can of Coke that’s empty and you crush it, that’s exactly what that was like.”

In the huge arena, there is total silence.

‘Fear factor’

“They’re experiencing tough love, and it’s to save them from something much, much worse,” says Dr Gerry Lane from the Irish Community Air Ambulance. “They need to go out on the road with an insight into what driving is like on Ireland’s roads.”

According to official figures, 137 people were killed on the roads in the State last year and 50 in Northern Ireland.

Seven fatalities were in Donegal, which consistently has figures for road deaths which are among the highest given its population, as well as a record of multiple-fatality crashes involving young drivers.

Traynor has attended some of the worst of these. “Every time you had a call you were wondering how many... you had three, then five, then eight, then doubles, then you had one single [fatality] after another between Burnfoot and Buncrana at one stage as well, so it was just the fear factor.

“You were thinking, my God, what were we going to face?”

Moville Community College has lost current and former pupils on the roads.

“That causes us to be particularly aware of days like this, and the importance of days like this in continuing to raise awareness,” says principal Anthony Doogan.

While the factors involved are not exclusive to Donegal, in the northwest many come together. “Its rural nature, the lack of public transport... [people] are forced into using cars, so making people aware of the consequences of sitting in a car is incredibly important.”

To this, add the over-confidence and lack of experience of young drivers, peer pressure – especially among young men trying to impress – the poor quality of many rural roads, and even the culture around cars.

‘Trying to impress’

“The people we’re really trying to get through to are the young girls who get into cars with young guys, if they’re brave enough or strong enough to make that decision,” says Traynor. “If the young lads are trying to impress them, to say listen, stop, let me out, I’m going to get another way home.”

In the sports hall, the students are still watching. Dr Áine Keating uses a series of X-rays to demonstrate the extent of Seán’s injuries.

“He will never walk again, never have function of his penis – guys, you can figure out what that means.”

Denise Harley takes to the stage; behind her is a photograph of a young woman holding a birthday cake. Her daughter Kym was killed days after her 19th birthday, in a crash on a small country road near their home in Ballybofey.

“We loved her, she loved us, she had a great personality, she was the life and soul of the party, always planning things, loads of friends... she gathered people everywhere she went, our house was always busy,” her mother remembers.

‘At 8am on the morning of my 19th birthday, I was told I would never do what you’ve all just done,’ she tells them. ‘I’d never stand, I’d never take another step again’

“He survived. Kym died at the scene. That’s when our nightmare began.

“Would you really want that for your family, would you want it for someone else’s family?”

In the auditorium, the silence has been replaced by the sound of sniffing; tears are wiped from cheeks.

Spotlight

The spotlight shines on Lizzie Keys, waiting in her wheelchair; Traynor, the reflective strips on his jacket glinting in the darkness, pushes the chair up the ramp and on to the stage.

She makes them stand up, and then sit down again. “At 8am on the morning of my 19th birthday, I was told I would never do what you’ve all just done,” she tells them. “I’d never stand, I’d never take another step again.

“I hope you’ve all paid attention to what each of us has told you here today. The harsh reality is it could happen to anyone.”

This is the final message. As the students leave, the impact of the presentation is written on their faces; one, overcome, is lying down on the floor.

“It’s really scary,” says 15-year-old Mark Farren from Moville Community College. Both he and his friend Shane Gillespie have been looking forward to getting their first cars. “More freedom... you don’t have to ask your mum for lifts.”

“I was woken up one night, my cousin passed away in one [a crash],” says Mark. They had thought about road safety before “but not as much as now”. He pauses. “It makes you realise.”