Heartbroken mum pleads for caution amid rise in road deaths
THE mother of a teenager who was killed in a car crash in 2017 has pleaded with road users to exercise caution amid a rise in road deaths.
Fines for the most serious driving offences are set to double in an bid to tackle the increasing number of road deaths and injuries, as 95 people have died so far this year.
Adam Case, 16, was the back seat passenger of a car that hit a tree on the Ballingarry North to Cloughjordan Road in Co. Tipperary on the afternoon of Wednesday, August 1, 2017.
Speaking ahead of her son’s fifth anniversary, Sharon Case recalled how her son had only just turned 16 three weeks before.
Sharon and her husband Eugene were out running errands and working when Adam was collected from his home.
‘He went in the car. He left a note on the counter. It said: “Gone cruisbody ing, back before 9”. He sent my husband the same message on Facebook, the exact same wording.’
Sharon said it was the first time her son had ever got into someone else’s car, as ‘anywhere he needed to go, we would take him’.
The driver of the car – which had been bought only that day – was a 22-year-old unknown to Adam.
‘My husband came home that day early from work. I just remember my daughter and my stepson were outside on their bicycles, and my husband was going out the gate, and as he was driving out I could see our local community guard coming in.
‘He just turned to Eugene, “Can you come back here for a minute?” And I just fell to the ground. He didn’t have to tell me because I knew. I remember turning to him and saying “Is Adam dead?” But yet I knew, but I think I just needed... confirmation, I guess.’
Sharon had to identify her child’s at the roadside. She begged to be allowed to accompany Adam in the ambulance and to put a blanket over him.
Adam, who would have turned 21 this year, had a stepbrother and a sister, Sarah, five. Sharon has since given birth to two more children.
‘Sarah to this day still cries, she still gets upset. She has fallen asleep with a photo of him. The impact is huge. She is always talking about him. Rian knows who he is from pictures, but he will never get to meet his big brother,’ said Sharon.
‘I have no doubt that the driver didn’t go out to kill my son that day, but the circumstances of speed, a car that he shouldn’t have been in, that’s not an accident, that’s a crash.
‘At the inquest we were told that the tyres on the car were on it since 1997. This was 2017. They were a huge, huge factor, as well as speed, in my son dying.’
She added: ‘The driver of the car was given two and a half years. There was no justice. It was too lenient.’
Sharon pleaded with road users to be safe.
‘If you feel it’s wrong and you don’t want to get in, just don’t get in the car. Don’t speed, don’t get into a car where someone has had alcohol or taken drugs. Just don’t do it.’
‘He will never meet his big brother’