‘Life can be taken away in a split second’

Ballinrobe father urges drivers to put phones down

Ciara Galvin

A FATHER who lost his son in a car accident ten years ago has urged drivers to slow down and put their phones away.
Ballinrobe man Dominic Morley was speaking after the tenth anniversary of the death of his son, Aaron, who lost his life, along with his cousin Patrick Morley and friend Jonathan Donovan, in a head-on collision on November 8, 2006. Their car collided with a tipper truck just before Ballinrobe Racecourse. They were 20, 24 and 21 at the time.
Aaron’s father says life has never been the same.
“It doesn’t get easier, you get used to it and you deal with it, but the pain doesn’t go away. You’ll never forget the scene of the accident,” says Mr Morley.
Globally, road-traffic accidents kill 1.2 million people every year and injure or disable as many as 50 million more. Behind each statistic there is a story of a father or mother, son or daughter, brother or sister, grandchild, colleague, classmate or friend whose life was transformed in an instant by a road crash.
Aaron was due to turn 21 on Christmas Day 2006, and Mr Morley says Christmas is an especially difficult time of year.
“Christmas is very sad and there is still a lot of people getting killed on the roads, more than last year ... some won’t be sitting at Christmas dinner this year ... life can be taken away in a split second and later you’re in the morgue.”

Put phones away
Speaking ahead of the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, Mr Morley went on to advise parents to tell their children to slow down and to put their phones away.
“I remember telling Aaron to slow down one day and said ‘I don’t want to visit you in the graveyard’, and now I am. Anyone that has lost someone, their hearts are torn out of them. I’d say [to drivers], ‘don’t bring that pain to their door. Your life [as a parent] is almost over after,” explained the father-of-three.
Morley believes the Government should do more to prevent deaths on Irish roads, along with social media companies like Facebook.
Dominic believes a device that renders a phone inaccessible when a car engine is running could be looked at and says social media companies such as Facebook should get involved in road safety campaigns.
This Sunday a service will take place at Knock Shrine at 12 noon to remember those who were injured or lost their lives in road collisions and to recognise the work carried out by the emergency services.
After the service all are invited for refreshments and an opportunity to mix in the Rest and Care Centre in Knock.