Grieving mum’s plea over tired drivers
To listen to her daughter’s infectious peals of laughter, Kim Davis-Ware replays a video saved to her phone.
It’s comforting, but it’ll never erase the memory of identifying her only child’s body on a hospital bed, or of the car wreckage her daughter was pulled from that fateful autumn morning.
Charlotte-Rose Clark-Ware was driving to school when a 66-year-old Australian driver, who had rented a car and began a five hour drive in the early hours of the morning, crossed the centreline and into Charlotte’s car.
Both drivers died at the scene. While the coroner would ultimately determine the circumstances behind the crash on May 8 last year, the Australian driver had got off a flight from Melbourne in the early hours of the morning, rented a car and began the drive to New Plymouth, O¯ torohanga police Senior Sergeant Andy Connors said. Those circumstances suggested fatigue may have been a contributing factor.
Davis-Ware believes the other driver’s sleep deprivation killed her daughter.
‘‘If [the other driver] had gone and slept, Charlotte would potentially still be here today,’’ she said.
Ahead of the upcoming coroner’s inquiry into Charlotte’s death, Davis-Ware is pleading for people – including the coroner – to take fatigued driving as seriously as drunk or drugged driving. It shouldn’t be so easy for a foreign traveller to hop off a plane and behind the wheel on unfamiliar roads, she said.
Charlotte was Davis-Ware’s only child, the only grandchild, the family’s future, ‘‘our world’’.
The creative ‘‘social butterfly’’, was in her last year of high school and planning to study law.
In a letter sent to the coroner, DavisWare wrote about a daughter who didn’t stop fighting battles until she’d won.
‘‘On that note, I have a battle that I hope perhaps you can put into consideration when making decisions in my daughter’s case.’’
Drivers falling asleep at the wheel are killing people, but it isn’t talked about enough, Davis-Ware said in the letter, referencing research suggesting fatigue can be as bad as driving over the alcohol limit.
And sleep-deprived international visitors, driving straight after a long flight, posed a risk to others, she said.
Davis-Ware asked that awareness and preventive measures – such as testing travellers for driving capabilities after long haul flights – be considered. Or a mandatory period of rest between getting off a flight and into a rental car.
Less than a day before Charlotte’s funeral, a driver, understood to have fallen asleep at the wheel, crashed his car through the family’s fence.
He was wearing a Good Charlotte band t-shirt, which felt like ‘‘Charlotte was sending us a message’’.
But it wasn’t until Kim visited the wreckage of Charlotte’s car, months later, that Davis-Ware decided people needed to know about her daughter.
‘‘I just saw [the car] and burst into tears,’’ she told Stuff. ‘‘It was so hard seeing it all mangled up like that.
‘‘It was just heart wrenching. The moment I saw that car I thought, I don’t want anyone to feel what I was feeling at that exact moment.’’
Almost 10 months after Charlotte’s crash, Davis-Ware feels like she’s still in shock. A pastel coloured scrapbook bearing the words ‘‘Stay Magical’’, made by Te Awamutu College, is perched on DavisWare’s mantelpiece, showing Charlotte in a butter yellow tutu and pink ball gown made by her mum. Charlotte was creative and artistic, opting to dress in ‘‘mismatched’’ patterns such as polka dots and stripes and florals all at once. ‘‘We thought she’d be great at it because she was great at arguing, she’d never back down. You wouldn’t want to face her in a courtroom, it’d be just a nightmare.
‘‘She always fought for the little person, was always helping her friends in need.’’ Charlotte had been bullied, but things had grown better for her in the months before she died.
When police officers turned up at her work, it wasn’t until they handed her Charlotte’s pale pink wallet that DavisWare began to believe what they were telling her. Hours later she was identifying her daughter at the hospital.
‘‘I still can’t get that image out of my head.’’
Days later, Charlotte was buried in a coffin painted with bright yellow sunflowers.
Davis-Ware prefers to remember Charlotte’s laugh. One of her favourite videos is, after she walked into her work – a wedding business – to find Charlotte ‘‘prancing’’ around in a veil.
‘‘I walked in and she just burst out laughing. It’s pretty much how I will always remember her. It was just so hilarious.’’
Since Charlotte’s death, Davis-Ware has seen her daughter’s friends finish high school and begin preparing for university.
‘‘I’m never going to have that with Charlotte. It’s all those little milestones.
‘‘I’m never going to have grand kids. It’s just gone. Our future is gone.’’
The family is yet to hear from the family of the other driver.
For Davis-Ware, it’s a shame because she wants them to know ‘‘we understand you’ve lost someone too’’.
She hopes more drivers will begin taking more responsibility for their tiredness, especially as it’s a hard thing for police to measure.
‘‘When you’re in a vehicle, you’ve got everybody’s life in your hands.
‘‘They say that time heals, but no. It gets harder.’’