The mother of a teenager killed instantly in a Co Derry road crash has appealed to motorists to “drive so that you arrive, that you are alive”.
Debbie Mullan said she hoped other parents do not have to face the “knock on the door” she experienced after her son Keelan Mullan (17) died in a collision in 2013.
He had nipped to a shop close to his family home in Drumsurn, near Limavady, to get a loaf of crusty bread when the tragedy happened.
His car struck black ice and he collided with a tractor and slurry tank. He had only passed his driving test a few weeks before he died.
Ms Mullan has joined Christopher Sherrard, who lost his father Wilson (60) in a road traffic collision in 2016, to highlight Road Safety Week.
Keelan and Wilson were among 684 road traffic collision fatalities in the north between 2013 to 2023.
One person loses their life on Northern Ireland’s roads on average every week and 57 have died so far this year.
The victims, including those who have been injured, their families, friends and the emergency services, are at the centre of this year’s road safety campaign.
Wilson Sherrard from Derry was a passenger in a car involved in a crash near Claudy in 2016.
Christopher said: “When my dad left in the morning time, he wasn’t expecting not to come home; he left the front door and he never came back.
“I would not want anyone to go through that experience because it just doesn’t last for one day, it lasts for a lifetime.
“It didn’t just affect our family, it affected my daddy’s friends it affected his work colleagues, it affected the fire officers who attended the scene, it affected the paramedics and the PSNI officers and also those who witnessed the scene, it was a horrible, horrible crash.
“Until the day my dad died I had never thought about road safety. My plea to everybody is to please drive carefully on the roads.”
Recalling the day of her son’s death, Ms Mullan said: “I saw a police car coming into the drive and it came to a stop just beside our patio doors.
“I still can’t hear the words, I just see the faces of the two police officers.
“Without being able to control the car, Keelan went into an oncoming tractor and slurry tank and he was killed instantly.
“I never want any other parent to experience what I have experienced.
“Wherever your journey is, I want you to drive so that you arrive, that you are alive, that your parents are not going to have that knock on the door.”
Both Ms Mullan and Mr Sherrard are members of the North West Road Safety Partnership, which has signed up to the Department for Infrastructure’s ‘Share the Road to Zero’ community engagement campaign.
Infrastructure minister John O’Dowd: “Every single week, at least one person – a mum, a dad, a son, a daughter, a friend - is not coming home to their family and their loved ones.
“These are people, not just a statistic, and their lives are shattered and will never be the same again.
“Long after the headlines are forgotten, victims have to live with the loss, the memories and the thoughts of what could have been.”
