Draft law named after unborn baby killed in crash to be published this month

By Bairbre Holmes, Press Association

A mother whose unborn son died following a crash has said TDs plan to have a draft bill named after her child published by the end of the month.

Saoirse Aylward lost her baby Jax in January 2024 following a collision in Co Wexford.

Jax’s Law, which is being drafted by Fine Gael TDs Barry Ward and Emer Currie, will cover unborn babies of at least 23 weeks’ gestation who die as a result of dangerous driving.

It will mean offenders will face the same penalty as those convicted of dangerous driving causing death, which is up to 10 years in prison.

Aylward said she hopes to meet with the Minister for Road Safety, Seán Canney, and the Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan.

She said “the cross-party support makes clear that this is a road safety issue, it is not a contentious issue, and it is just common sense”.

She was speaking alongside Colleen Langan who said her aunt Róisín and her unborn baby Catherine were killed in a road traffic collision in 2010.

Langan described her aunt as a “beloved” primary school teacher who was “so excited to be a mother to her first child”.

She said due to the current legislation Baby Catherine’s death was “never registered” and her death was “never recorded in the Road Safety Authority’s report to say she was also a victim of a road traffic collision for that year”.

She said babies like Jax and Catherine “deserve the acknowledgement, recognition and, more so, to know that their lives are important, valued and mattered”.