AS A PSNI OFFICER I WITNESSED TRULY HORRIFIC ROAD CRASHES, NOW I’M ON A MISSION TO EDUCATE YOUNG DRIVERS
As a PSNI officer, Tracey Doherty witnessed the devastating human cost of carnage on our roads. Now, the mum-of-two is delivering a harrowing presentation to young people across Northern Ireland in a bid to drive home the road safety message, writes Stephanie Bell
Having been at countless scenes of carnage on our roads as a PSNI officer, few people are better placed to get the message on driving safely across to young people than Tracey Doherty.
The Co Down mum-of-two spent 30 years working in what has to be one of the toughest roles in the police service, as a family liaison officer.
It was her job not only to attend the scene of fatal crashes but to deliver the devastating news to loved ones.
To mark Road Safety Week in Northern Ireland, which runs until Sunday, Tracey recalls those tough years and also her new role delivering a hard-hitting programme to young drivers called Respect the Road.
To date, more than 50,000 young people have heard Tracey’s presentation which she devised in conjunction with Autoline Insurance. And it is making a huge impression.
New statistics released by Autoline’s app ChilliDrive to coincide with Road Safety Week reveal that young drivers are now often the safest on Northern Ireland’s roads.
Chillidrive was devised by Autoline to allow young people to monitor the quality of their driving via an app on their mobile phone. Challenging the stereotype of reckless young drivers, the statistics have shown that ChilliDrive drivers who have recently passed their driving test scored the highest marks across the board.
This included individual scores for their speed, cornering, braking and acceleration, earning them pole position within the rankings.
Up until November of this year young people aged between 16-24 have made up 19% of the fatalities on our roads, which makes Tracey and Autoline’s programme all the more important.
Tracey (56), who left the PSNI six years ago, and her husband George (58), a manager, also devised the powerful Road Safe Road Show which has been touring schools and youth groups, delivering an uncompromising message to young drivers.
It is her first-hand experience as a police officer which has driven Tracey to become so passionate about getting the message across on road safety.
As a mum of two girls, Stacey (32) and Samantha (27), knocking the door of families to break the news that their young son or daughter had been killed in a car crash took its toll on her.
Recalling 30 years of working in the PSNI she says: “I was 18 when I first attended a road death. It is something you don’t think about until you see it at the side of the road and I describe it as hell on earth.
“There is nothing that can prepare you for that and even now, more than 30 years later, I still see the images every day and I will until the day I die.
“You never ever forget. Even the smell lingers. When a car leaves the road there is a smell of earth turned over mixed with petrol or diesel fumes.
“There is the sound of people screaming in cars and then seeing first-hand the deaths... and that’s not even as bad as it gets. Going to the family home is the worst thing I have ever had to do.”
Tracey pauses and then continues: “When you’re out driving with a colleague usually there is banter in the car, but if you are going to a family home to deliver that sort of awful news, then there is just silence as you try to prepare yourself for what is ahead.
“It might seem strange to people but I actually would have got some comfort if I saw that the house had a solid front door.
“If it had glass panels I found it more difficult as you could see the mum coming down the hall, maybe laughing or talking to someone in the room she has just left — and their life is normal until they open the door and then I’m going to destroy it. There is no way to prepare for that.”
It is this message about the devastation to families that Tracey tries to hammer home to the young people in her Autoline presentations.
She says the reaction to the worst news a parent could hear is different every time and as a police officer she was there to support grieving families, even giving them her personal phone number so that they could contact her any time, day or night.
Of the many tragedies she has visited in her career with the PSNI, one in particular stands out in her memory.
Tracey explains: “Some people get the family album out and shed tears and you sit and go through it with them.
“Others close the door on you because they want to create a barrier between you and what you’ve told them in the hope it is not real and will go away.
“I had one father who dipped down on his knees and grabbed my clothes and begged me to tell him it wasn’t true. I have never attended a house when I haven’t shed a tear myself and I have come out of houses with my jacket and skirt soaking from the tears of bereaved parents.
“There was one young girl who was just a year older than my daughter when she died. She didn’t die at the scene and they fought very hard for her, so there was a little bit of hope, but that quickly diminished.
“Her mother was absolutely devastated. I was sitting at home one night when she rang me and said she didn’t want to live any more without her daughter.
“She said she just felt that life without her wasn’t worth living.
“I was looking at a picture of my own daughter in her school uniform and I knew how she felt.
“We chatted and I got her to hold on for a few minutes while I rang her mother who just lived a few doors down.
“That was probably the worst I have dealt with.”
This experience and all the emotion that goes with it is now poured into Tracey’s programme, which unsurprisingly is having a big impact on young people who have just passed their driving
tests. Touring schools and youth groups, the teens are asked to think about how their parents would feel if they had to be told their child had died in a car crash.
So powerful is that message that often young people leave the presentation in tears.
Tracey says: “There is nothing graphic in the programme but we don’t tone it down either. For many young people it is the first time they have thought about taking themselves out of the equation and what that would mean for their families.”
Using mobile phones and not wearing a seat belt are avoidable — yet all too common — causes of death on the road and this is one of the main messages of the Respect the Road campaign.
Tracey says: “One of the hardest things for me is looking at a car which hasn’t much damage and asking why then was there a fatality. If someone in the back isn’t wearing a seat belt and their head collides with the person sitting in front there can be a double fatality.
“Often, too, we find mobile phones on the floor of the car open on Snapchat or Facebook or the person has been making or accepting a call.
“How do you tell a parent that their child died because he or she was using their mobile phone or even worse they killed someone else because of it?”
Tracey teamed up with Autoline Insurance five years ago to develop the Respect the Road programme and since then has brought the message to over 50,000 young people.
Her programme also includes a real-life car simulator, which allows students to get an idea of the horror of what it feels like to be in a road traffic accident.
Tracey adds: “We are working with young people aged 17 and 18 who are out there driving cars. They are making decisions for themselves and out there taking responsibility.
“I would say to everyone using the road to just think for a minute of your family and whether you would ever want someone to come out to your door to tell them you are not coming home.” Suzanne Curtis, marketing manager for Autoline Insurance Group, said: “Millennials and Generation Z are often berated for their supposed lack of driving ability. We are delighted to see from the insights derived from the ChilliDrive app that the opposite is true, with young drivers leading the charge for safe driving on our roads.
“At Autoline, we place great importance on educating young people on the dangerous impact that careless driving can have. Our Respect the Road programme incorporates a powerful presentation with a dramatic simulator experience to bring the reality of reckless driving to life.
“Reaching 50,000 students so far has been a massive achievement that we are deeply proud of. As a company we are passionate about this road safety initiative and will continue to strive to reach out to as many young people as possible with the overall aim of positively impacting safety on roads across Northern Ireland.”
ChilliDrive is a reduced premium car insurance policy that uses telematics technology to measure and score drivers’ journeys and contributes to improving driving standards. For further information about how your school can participate in the Respect The Road programme contact Evanna Kieran at Autoline Insurance Group, tel: 028 3025 9011 or visit www.chillidrive.com