'It's a miracle that I did not die': Crash victim speaks about life changing incident on Cork motorway
Emergency services at the scene of a fatal collision on the M8 motorway near Mitchelstown, Co. Cork.
THE victim of the crash where a minor drove a stolen car in the wrong direction down the Cork-Dublin motorway, has opened up about the impact the incident had on her life.
Roisín Stakelum said that she is still haunted by the memories of the impact.
“Sometimes during the day, even a loud noise can trigger it and then I'll remember what happened and it's almost like I'm back in the car at that moment,” said Ms Stakelum.
Yesterday at the Cork Circuit Criminal Court, the 17-year-old was sentenced to four years of detention for the incident on the M8 motorway at Ballybeg near Mitchelstown, in which 16-year-old front seat passenger Johnny Foley lost his life.
Speaking on The Neil Prendeville show on RedFM, Ms Stakelum gave an update on her recovery, saying: “I'm better than what I was, but I'm still in the very early stages of the recovery process, so there's still a long way to go.”
Ms Skakelum had been in the process of moving to Australia when her car was hit, and explained that her plans are over now, saying:
She explained that on the night of the accident, she had left her house just after midnight to travel to Dublin airport, where she was meeting a friend.
“Obviously, I didn't make it past Mitchelstown,” she said, adding that while she has some memories of the crash itself, they are “quite hazy” and “not very nice memories.”
Her next memory is a garda coming to her window, and lots of flashing emergency lights. She said her friend had rang garda stations and toll booths to figure out why Ms Stakelum hadn’t arrived to the airport, and then alerted her family.
She was taken to CUH for emergency surgery, and months later, medical and surgical intervention are still ongoing.
Ms Stakelum shared the thought that while “the whole experience was very, very negative and awful, there were some positives,” thanking people who supported her, such as the gardaí, specifically Aoife McCarthy who was the liaison officer.
“She supported me through every step of the way, and she was absolutely fantastic, I can't stress enough how amazing she was - I had no idea how to navigate a court system or how to write a victim impact statement, and she just supported me every single step of the way.”
In her moving victim impact statement, Ms Stakelum said: and she added on the radio show, “my heart is broken that he died in the crash - it's a devastating outcome.”
She also thanked the CUH staff, specifically the team of the 4B ward that she was in directly after the surgery.
“They looked after me like I was one of their own, it was like my family were looking after me.”
Discussing seeing her face in the mirror for the first time and initially thinking it was someone else, Ms Stakelum said: “I never thought that I was going to look the same way ever again. I still have scars on my face and my teeth aren't fixed yet, so, there's still a good way to go before I feel anywhere normal again. But hopefully I'll get there.”
Speaking of the case, which involved a minor driving a stolen car the wrong way at high speed, Ms Stakelum continued: “I must be quite naive because I just didn't think that kind of stuff happened. I just think that if me telling my story can stop even just one person from doing something like that, that would be a win.”
As well as physical rehab, Ms Stakelum shared that she is also attending counselling, but that she is still not working or driving, which she considers major components in her life.
She said these two things are her main goals at the moment.
Ms Stakelum concluded by saying:
“What happened was awful, but you have to see the positives in it, and it's certainly a positive that I didn't die and that I'm still here.”
- If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please click here for a list of support services.
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