Widow’s plea to motorists to drive safely

The inspirational woman whose family was wiped out in a horror holiday crash has pleaded with motorists to drive carefully over the Christmas period.

Elber Twomey, from North Cork, said she doesn’t want anyone go to through a nightmare similar to hers. Her appeal came as the Road Safety Authority (RSA) expressed concern at the 240% increase in the number of cyclists killed, and a rise in mobile phone usage by drivers.

Ms Twomey, who since her tragedy in 2012 has devoted her life to ensuring gardaí get special training to deal with suicidal drivers, said everyone should be concerned with road safety.

“I don’t want anyone to go through the nightmare that I have endured over the past two years,” she said.

“I agree with the Road Safety Authority that people should slow down, allow extra time for their journeys, take extra care on the roads and ensure that all road users have a safe Christmas,” she said.

Ms Twomey and her family were returning from holidays in Devon on July 6, 2012, when tragedy struck on the road near Torquay.

An inquest found that Polish taxi driver, Marek Wojciechowski, deliberately swerved on to their side of the road and rammed his car head-on into theirs.

He had left a suicide note and was being pursued by police.

Ms Twomey’s son, Oisín, aged 16 months, and her unborn daughter, Elber Marie, died in the crash.

Her husband Con suffered devastating injuries and died in Cork University Hospital 10 months later.

Since then, Ms Twomey has met government ministers and senior gardaí in an effort to highlight the need for specialist training for gardaí when confronted with suicidal drivers.

She has also raised thousands of euro for suicide prevention charities and has encouraged people experiencing mental health difficulties to seek help.

“Don’t suffer in silence this Christmas — there is help there and all you have to do is reach out for it,” she said.

Meanwhile, Garda figures show 191 people have died on our roads so far this year — one more than for the same period last year.

While the number of drivers killed has declined, there has been an increase in the number of deaths of so-called vulnerable road users — cyclists and pedestrians — with a 240% increase in the number of cyclists killed.

Garda figures also show that detections of mobile phone use while driving is up 16% this year.

“It is a very worrying trend and something that we need to tackle now before it becomes an epidemic,” said RSA chief executive Moyagh Murdoch.

“Like drink driving, the role of the RSA is to change attitudes and behaviour and we’ve seen that happen in terms of drink driving so we need to see the same sea change in the attitude towards using a mobile phone while driving.”

Speaking on RTÉ she said the number of drivers who had lost their lives was down but driver behaviour towards other road users had not improved.