Several people seated on pews at Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin nodded their heads in agreement as musician Steve Wall suggested they would all remember where they were when they “got that phone call”.
Wall recalled a “beautiful morning” as he lifted the shutters of a music studio in Dublin before learning that his three-year-old niece, Estlin, and his brother, Vincent, had been involved in a collision in Inagh, Co Clare in 2017.
While bringing his daughter to creche, Vincent had to swerve to avoid a truck that had pulled out from behind a bus. He then collided with oncoming traffic. Estlin died days later, while her father suffered a serious brain injury.
“We were all dreading who would be there when he would ask about Estlin, because at this point, she had been buried for weeks,” Wall said.
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The truck driver, Senan O’Flaherty, was initially fined €1,500 and given a four-year driving ban for careless driving causing the death of Estlin and serious bodily harm to Vincent.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) appealed the decision and O’Flaherty later received a 16-month sentence, suspended in full. His licence was also restored a year early.
He said “further hurt” was caused by decisions taken in the case and he does not believe there is a sufficient deterrent “to put people off taking” risks on the roads.
Wall, lead singer of The Stunning and The Walls, was speaking on Monday at a Road Safety Authority event to mark World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.
Those attending nodded their heads in agreement as Jacinta McIntyre remarked how she believed loved ones send “signals”.
She said the most recent signal from her sister, Sarah Browne, was hearing her funeral song on the radio as she travelled to Monday’s event. Sarah died in 1999, aged 16, after an articulated lorry rear-ended the car she was in, also killing her best friend’s mother, Jennette Bourke.
Others spoke of the effect of losing loved ones in such a “cruel and immediate way”, with Stephen Doyle saying it “completely changed the trajectory of my life”.
He told how his family’s lives were “shattered” when his three youngest siblings, Darren (27), David (24), and Ryan (17), died in a collision in Co Offaly in 2012.
“A loss like our family’s, and the losses that so many in this room have suffered, changes every single element of your life, forever,” he said.
As of November 10th, 148 people have been killed on the State’s roads so far this year, according to Garda statistics, an increase of six in comparison to the same period last year.
Speaking at the event, Minister of State with responsibility for road safety Seán Canney said each of the 148 lives lost this year was “one too many”.
Road safety remains a “core priority” for the Government, he said, adding that he is tackling “long-standing issues” such as closing the learner permit loophole, which allows drivers to renew permits indefinitely without sitting a driving test.
He said this would come into effect in November of next year, “giving current candidates time to prepare”.
Work to reduce speed limits in urban areas from 50km/h to 30km/h, meanwhile, is expected to be complete by March 2027, he said.
However, Mr Canney said legislation and infrastructure alone “cannot make our roads safer”, adding that speeding, distracted driving, and intoxicated driving remain the leading causes of death and serious injury.
Since taking up his role as Minister of State, he said he has heard “truly heartbreaking” stories from families who have lost loved ones on Ireland’s roads.
“Each of us has a role to play,” he said, adding that through education and enforcement “we can change behaviours and change lives”.
