Controversial road safety advertisement targeting learner drivers will return to TV screens

THE controversial road safety advertisement featuring a Corkman whose wife and daughter died in a crash involving an unaccompanied learner driver will air again next month.

The Crashed Lives advertisement features the story of how Kilworth man Noel Clancy’s wife Geraldine and daughter Louise were killed in a collision with an unaccompanied learner driver. It was aired from December to early February.

It resulted in more than 20 complaints to the Department of Transport relating to the introduction of the Clancy Amendment legislation last December and the advertisement itself.

The RSA also received complaints in relation to the advertisement.

However, a spokesman for the RSA said the advertisement will run again in October.

The advertisement coincided with the introduction of the Clancy Amendment on December 22, enabling the prosecution of vehicle owners who allow their vehicles to be driven by unaccompanied learner drivers.

It means that a parent can be prosecuted for allowing their car to be driven by their child if they are an unaccompanied learner. 

More than 1,600 vehicles have been seized from unaccompanied learner drivers since the end of last year in Ireland.

It was introduced on the date of the third anniversary of the women’s deaths.

Among the complaints received by the department about the legislation were letters and emails outlining issues around the lack of public transport in rural areas, and lengthy waiting times for driving tests.

Geraldine Clancy, 58, was driving her 22-year-old daughter to Fermoy to catch a bus to Cork when the incident happened.

In February 2017, an inquest found the Clancy women had both died from acute cardiorespiratory failure due to drowning following a road traffic accident.

The accident took place just half an hour from the Clancy home outside Kilworth and Noel was among those who assisted at the scene of the accident.

The impact of the collision resulted in the Clancys’ Ford Focus being pushed into a flooded drain.

He did not realise that his loved ones were the victims until he spotted the number plate of the family’s car.