My mother and daughter were run over by a car as they made their way across the road on a zebra crossing, a few weeks before Christmas in 2023. On Thursday, the elderly driver responsible left court after she was given a 12 month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and banned from driving for life.
The driver, Valeria Greenwood with an address at Woodvale Road in Eglinton, Co Derry, was 86 years old when it happened. The judge said she "shouldn't have been driving" and made reference to her age and health as he delivered the sentence.
My mother suffered life changing injuries, and psychological wounds that may never heal. She spoke movingly about her ordeal to my colleague at Belfast Live Connor Lynch, whose report can be found here.
We are not the only family dealing with the aftermath of the carnage wrought by a driver who shouldn't have been allowed behind the wheel. It's only weeks since I read, with horror, about the death of Scarlett Rosborough in August, 2023.
Scarlett was a beautiful eight-year-old girl who was struck by a car in Carrickfergus and sadly died from her injuries. The driver of the vehicle was John Noble Lindsay, a 92-year-old from Prince Andrew Way in Carrick, who was sentenced on December 9, 2024 to a ten-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and banned from driving for five years.
Her family have called for the laws around the licensing for older drivers to change. I suspect, sadly, that it will be only a matter of time before I find myself reading or writing about another tragedy caused by an elderly driver if Scarlett's family are not listened to.
The law, as it currently stands, simply requires elderly drivers to declare themselves fit to drive. There is no test. An elderly driver must decide for themselves if they pose a danger to others. I've little sympathy for anyone who, through arrogance, pride or perhaps a selfish desire to do what they like, choose to declare themselves fit to be on the road when they clearly are not.
Following the crash, my daughter - who was three years old at the time - spent several days in the children's ward at Altnagelvin hospital with pain so intense she could barely move.
The first time she left her bed was to look out the window of the hospital tower block. I carried her in my arms and she cried in pain, but she and wanted to see the moon. Later that night, she finally agreed to try and sit in a wheelchair so she could go and see her granny.
I wheeled her down the hospital corridors at night to the A&E, where my mother was still lying on a trolley, awaiting a bed in the orthopaedic ward. The sight of her grandmother scared Fiadh, but the sight of Fiadh conscious and alert was a great relief to my mother.
Back in the children's ward, and back in bed, Fiadh asked me "if the car was going to get her in the hospital." I didn't know what to say, so I told her the car was in prison. "The police men came and took the bad car away," I said. That seemed to settle her down and she drifted off to sleep. The next day, we were allowed to take her home. The doctors said there was some, minor, internal bleeding but they were content for Fiadh to leave.
She had nightmares every day for months, and still occasionally dreams of a car running her over. It was weeks before she was able to move about freely again. Her Christmas was spent in pain. What happened Fiadh was horrific and she might never fully recover from what happened but I know that we are lucky. It could have been much worse.
I don't know if I would have coped had the driver, Valeria Greenwood, actually killed my little girl. It doesn't take a wild imagination to suggest I could have lost both my mother and my daughter when Mrs Greenwood drove straight through them on the zebra crossing in Eglinton that day.
Scarlett Rosborough was on my mind as I left the courthouse on Bishop Street in Derry on Thursday. How would I have coped, knowing I was going home to a house with a child's bedroom lying empty, with no school run the next morning, with the sound of Fiadh's laughter missing from my life forever?
My heart goes out to Scarlett's family, and I'm fully supportive of their calls for 'Scarlett's law', to tighten up the licensing system for elderly drivers.
Some may point to statistics for road traffic collisions that show certain demographics - young, male drivers in particular - are involved in more collisions than others. What those statistics do not reflect, though, is the ability level of the drivers involved.
Young, male drivers are unlikely to be hindered by declining cognitive abilities, sensory perception, or mobility issues. They are perfectly capable of passing a driving test and driving safely even if some may choose to drive in an unsafe way. The same does not apply to elderly drivers, who have the choice removed from them by the advancing years.
It's important to note that we are in new territory when it comes to elderly drivers. There are more elderly people today than at any time in our history, and they are more likely to own their own car than at any time in history. Society has changed but our laws have not.
English (United States) ·