A Whaplode Drove 20-year-old who died following a collision is the face of a new police road safety campaign.
Amy Cooper died on November 13, 2022 when the motorbike she was riding home after being at a friend’s house was hit by a car attempting to overtake in thick fog.
This week Lincolnshire Police and the Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership has launched its After Amy campaign to improve road safety.
It includes a ten-minute film of interviews with Amy’s mum Amanda and sister Sam where they talk about the effect her loss has had on them.
It ends with a picture of Amy’s bike and the words ‘Please take more care on the roads. Think carefully about the decisions you make and consider the devastation that can be caused by a split-second error of judgement’.
A spokesman for Lincolnshire Police said: “An unforgettable whirlwind of a person, with big plans and crazy ideas, this girl was a biker through and through.
“She deserved the fearless and adventurous life she had ahead of her, and her family deserved to see that beautiful life unfold.
“Everybody has the right to get home safely, and this right was stolen from Amy in the reckless choice of another driver.
“Despite their grief, or perhaps because of it, Amy’s family are utterly determined to improve road safety. In memory of Amy, they are asking people to take more care on the roads, think carefully about the decisions they make, and consider the devastation that can be caused by a split-second error of judgement.
“It is not just persistent offenders who cause these tragedies; every single driver and rider on our roads has the potential to devastate lives through a split-second wrong decision.
“It is too easy to assume it can’t happen to you because you think you are a good road user. Data from the Department for Transport has “ineffective observation” as the top Road Safety Factor leading to a collision.”
Amanda said of the collision: “She was thrown about 60 yards down the road. Her injuries were extensive. Her bike was embedded in the car. Her rucksack was found 20 feet up a tree.
“There’s just this big hole now where Amy should be. I keep going. I have family to care for. I need to go to work. Grief doesn’t pay the bills. But she’s never far from my thoughts. I can go along for a while being kind of numb and coping, but then every now and again, I still get this feeling of just despair and this sickness in the pit of my stomach, like somebody’s just kicked me; that this is real. She’s really not coming back.”
Amy’s sister Sam says one of the most difficult things she’s ever done was to tell her five-year-old daughter about her aunty’s death.
“I want Amy’s legacy to be that somebody takes a moment and thinks what happened to her, you could so easily cause to happen to someone else. You could be the safest driver in the world – but it’s that one decision. You take that chance, and Amy could be coming in the other direction.
“Somebody’s Amy, or your Amy, could be coming in that direction and then that’s it.
“That’s somebody’s life over. That’s your whole life changed as well.”
The driver who killed Amy, Shane Kirk, was jailed for eight years and three months as a result of the incident.
