Lessons must be learned from my mother’s death
Grieving Tonya Tier wants no other tourist to die as her loved ones did
I was screaming ‘Mom’ but there was no response
We sent the kids in the middle horse and cart
IT WAS a fairytale moment on a fairytale trip. As Tonya Tier and her husband Bill Walthers trip-trapped serenely along the road in a horse and cart, they watched in awe as the majesty of the Kerry mountains revealed itself before them. Ahead in another pony and trap, their two young children giggled and stared at the amazing surroundings of a country they had always dreamed of visiting.
Further ahead, Tonya’s mother Rosalyn Few — or Joy as she was affectionately known to those who knew her best — and her partner Normand Larose led the way as the whole family basked in the picture-postcard beauty of the Old Country. Then Tonya heard the screams.
As she turned a sharp corner, she and Bill could see their children’s cart pulled up and the two children howling with horror and fear.
Tonya and Bill leapt from their cart and ran over to the scene. At first came the flood of relief that their own children were safe. Then, a microsecond later, the blood-chilling realisation that something utterly appalling had happened to Joy and Normand.
‘I remember coming down the mountain passage with my husband and we could see my children at the edge of the ravine,’ Tonya tells the Irish Daily Mail from her home in the US, in her first interview since the incident. ‘There was no sign of Mom and Norm’s cart, I ran with Bill to the children. They were crying and in shock.
‘I didn’t know what happened, the driver was in shock and the horse and cart were below, smashed on the rocks. I remember screaming “Mom!”, but there was no response. It was too late, she and Norm were already dead.’
The precise cause of the horrific accident is still not known, but it’s understood the animal became startled, turned round sharply and backed off the road.
Attempts to calm the animal failed and the carriage appeared to slide down a natural water drain that leads from the road to scattered granite boulders.
‘We have been working with an attorney in Co. Kerry but we have not yet had a police report and we are still waiting on a full diagnostics report about exactly what happened on that day,’ says Tonya.
The trap driver, a local man in his 40s, managed to jump free from it as it careered down the five-metre decline on to the rocks.
Passersby did their best to help, releasing the horse and lifting the carriage off Joy, 65, and Normand, 62, but to no avail. ‘It was a dream come true for us to share a trip to Ireland together. It’s the stuff of fairytales to take a horse and cart through the Irish mountains, but none of us could ever have imagined the horrors such a trip would bring to our family,’ sobs Tonya.
‘It took a while to sink in what was happening, it’s surreal now to even think back on it, it still sends a chill down my spine.’
It was the most tragic of endings to what had begun as a dream trip. In April of this year, Joy was excited that she was finally getting to tick off a bucket-list wish as her family set off to Ireland on the holiday of a lifetime.
After their arrival here, the family had travelled from Killarney to Ross Castle on the edge of Lough Leane before boarding a boat past Muckross Lake and into Killarney National Park.
The couple, from Phoenix, Arizona, then made their way to a 19th century hunting lodge known as Lord Brandon’s Cottage, where an onlooker saw them laughing and joking over coffee and iced buns.
All six then set off, like thousands of other tourists, on a traditional pony and trap ride down the 11km winding road through the Gap of Dunloe to Kate Kearney’s Cottage.
Joy and Norman took the first pony and trap after a last-minute decision to let the children ride together with Tonya and Bill following in the last one.
‘The children were very excited but we sent them in the middle horse and cart so we could watch them,’ Tonya says.
The accident happened just ahead of an old stone bridge, known as the Wishing Bridge, about two miles from the cottage.
Tonya says that the past few months have been incredibly ‘painful’ for her family, with this time of year being particularly difficult.
‘The holidays are coming up and with Thanksgiving, it’s just really hitting us as to what happened. She’s gone and she’s never coming back. It’s hard to process and it’s been a difficult time for the children, it was a terrible thing for them to have to see. I want to speak out now to protect future families from experiencing the same pain,’ she says.
Holding back tears, she adds: ‘My mom was an extremely outgoing and loving person. She was really into her health and fitness and would spend hours at the gym, and her and Norm were really into their motorbikes.
‘She worked at a hospital for 20-something years and this trip to Ireland was meant to be a trip of a lifetime. Instead it has turned into unimaginable tragedy.
‘Mom was super-popular and loved and it’s been very traumatic.’
Joy and Norm’s deaths are not the first tragic accident to take place at the scenic tourist spot in Co. Kerry. Janet Price, 69, was on a dream holiday in Ireland in May 2017 with her husband Don Theiler, 75, and their friend Roy Christiansen. The American trio had rented bikes and were cycling from the Gap of Dunloe back to Killarney when Janet crashed into a jeep and trailer as she came around a bend. She was killed instantly.
Tonya now wants changes to road safety laws here in Ireland, to prevent more tragedies in the popular tourist area.
‘My family and I are just coming out of the shock of what happened to us earlier this year,’ she says. ‘We’re just trying to wrap our heads around everything but with the holidays approaching, it’s very hard for us.
‘We’re all really sad — it’s unimaginable pain that nobody should have to go through to. My Mom was, and still is, loved by so many people.’
As they still struggle to come to terms with the aftermath of the accident, Tonya is determined that Joy and Norm’s deaths won’t be in vain.
‘I think everybody — from my uncles, to myself, to my children — would love to see some type of measure by Co. Kerry and your transport department to make sure that this does not happen to anyone else,’ she says.
Tonya thinks that the pony and traps that travel the Gap of Dunloe are a risk to public safety in Ireland. ‘I think the horse and traps are dangerous and there are risks involved for tourists who go on them. I think people need to know about this.
‘I think the pony men need training in cases of emergency and in cases of a tragic accident, like what happened to my mom and Norm. Even basic first-aid training would be a necessary measure to take, for the possibility that this could happen again,’ she says.
‘I think greater safety measures need to be taken along the route — signposts don’t prevent a horse and cart from plunging over the side of a cliff. I think that there needs to be caution taken by tourists who are considering going on these rides in future.
‘I don’t know if it needs to be completely banned or not but we are still processing everything, as it’s still so raw for us,’ says Tonya.
‘I definitely would love a change in the road safety laws by the Irish Government or the local council, even if more barricades could be installed along the route. Anything, really, that would prevent more deaths in the area.’
At the inquest of Janet Price earlier this year, the jury returned a verdict of accidental death, with the coroner recommending that signs should be erected on the roadway for all road users. Kerry County Council, which is in charge of the road through the Gap of Dunloe, said it would consider the recommendations.
Tonya is in agreement with the Price family but says that ‘bigger measures’ need to be taken, given the fact that three American tourists have died along the same stretch of road.
‘If some sort of barrier had been there, perhaps, the cart wouldn’t have went over the edge,’ she stresses.
‘My kids were coming right behind my parents’ cart. They didn’t see it happen directly but when they came around the corner Mom and Norm were already gone. When Bill and I came up in our cart, our kids were just standing at the edge looking down at the accident.
‘We haven’t had any contact from Kerry County Council or the Irish Government to explain what happened on that road.’
The Tier family say that they are now considering legal action against Kerry County Council into the accident that claimed the lives of two much-loved grandparents.
‘Legal action is definitely something we are considering,’ says Tonya. ‘It’s not about money, it’s about highlighting the huge risk to tourists at this scenic spot — anything to make sure that the council takes preventative measures to ensure the safety of other tourists who might take a horse and trap pony ride around the Gap of Dunloe.’
Despite the heartache her family has endured, Tonya says that they are particularly grateful to the Irish people who rallied around them in the aftermath.
‘We got very kind messages from the Irish community and that was helpful,’ she says. ‘There was a beautiful ceremony in Cork for Mom and Norm, then we brought Mom back to the US and Norm’s family brought him home.
‘It’s hard with the holidays but what I really wish is that no other family has to go through the pain and devastation we are going through. My kids were severely traumatised by the accident, they miss their grandmother very much.
‘We have talked about going back to Ireland, but right now, I don’t think any of us is ready for that,’ a devastated Tonya adds.
Signposts don’t prevent a cart falling over a cliff