Byrne breaks down at launch of road ad

Micilín Feeney (28) holds a photograph of himself in hospital after he suffered brain injuries resulting from a car accident on Halloween night in 2004, at the launch of the Road Safety Authority's latest ad campaign yesterday. The campaign started last night and will run until the end of January.
Photograph: Kate Geraghty

Chairman of the Road Safety Authority Gay Byrne broke down and people in the audience wept during the launch of the authority's latest advertising campaign, "Crashed Lives", yesterday.

The authority, which has in the past used graphic depictions of car crashes, this time used "true life" accounts of deaths and serious injuries on Irish roads.

The scenes are narrated in three cases by family members of the dead, and in one case by a crash victim who is suffering from brain injuries.

Speaking before the screening which was attended by Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey and Assistant Garda Commissioner Eddie Rock, Mr Byrne promised "a sombre afternoon". He said the accounts were from "real people who met awful, awful tragedy in their lives" and whose motivation in making the advertisements was that "hopefully, possibly they would save even one life by what they are doing".

Introducing the first advertisement, Mr Byrne said it was an account of the death of Errin Cawley (22), who died two years ago following a car crash on the M50. To images of Errin dancing and working with children, a voiceover provided by her mother, Betty Cawley, recounts what happened in the crash. "I still feel the weight of Errin's head on my shoulder, the gurgling of her breathing, the smell of burning rubber, the smell of her perfume."

The second account is provided by Micilín Feeney from Lettermullen, Co Galway, who was 23 when he was involved in a single-vehicle crash on Halloween night in 2004. Mr Feeney, who has acquired brain injury as a result, said in his voiceover: "I made a stupid mistake. I had been drinking and then I drove." He added that it was ironic that he now looks "drunk all the time".

The third case is that of Emma Hastings (17) who died on St Valentine's Day in 2002, when she was thrown from a car in a crash. The voiceover provided by her mother, Catherine, explains that Emma died at the side of the road.

The fourth case is that of Greystones, Co Wicklow man Fran Mitchell, who was 27 when he fell asleep at the wheel of his car and was killed in July 2005, just five minutes from his home. His brother Charlie narrates his story, recalling marathons run and a climb of Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for Ugandan orphans.

Mr Byrne said he would "make no apology for breaking down. I defy anybody not to be affected".

© 2007 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times