Teens get insight to horror crashes
The transition students attending the AXA-sponsored show in the Helix in Dublin City University got a description of a horrific crash.
“We are not trying to shock you or upset you. We just want to show you how things really are,” said RTÉ Pulse DJ, Orla Feeney who presented the show.
Garda David Barron, from Santry, said: “There is no reset button in life. It’s not like Wii or Xbox where you can just start over. When something goes wrong, that’s it,” he said.
Tony Kelly, a paramedic for 30 years, gave a description of coming on the scene of an accident where a girl died after being catapulted from a car and then finding her boyfriend was trapped in the wreckage.
Laurence Skelly, a fire officer based in Donnybrook, Dublin, recalled coming upon a head-on collision involving two cars.
He said the young man driving one car was pinned to his seat by the dashboard and was in a lot of pain.
“On closer examination we found we could not see his feet — not that they severed or anything but, on impact, the floor folded up and pushed his feet into a space of two or three inches,” said Officer Kelly.
“I’ll never forget the angulation of deformities of his legs because I was carrying what was left. That’s what speed does,” he said.
Emergency consultant, Dr Mick Molloy showed graphic slides.
One slide showed a dead youth’s cracked skull with the brain protruding through the scalp.
And there was a sudden intake of breath by students when they saw a slide showing the torn face of a young girl, who survived.
“This is what happens your face when broken glass hits it at high speed,” said Dr Molloy, who added that the girl, who was not wearing a seatbelt, also lost her left eye.
Accident survivor, Aidan Scully who sustained a head injury and lost the use of an arm when he was a teenager urged young people to be especially careful on the roads.
“If I had checked more carefully at the gates of the park before cycling onto the road; if the young driver who hit me had driven more slowly; if helmets had been available for cyclists back then, the accident would not have had such serious consequences,” he said.
