Two women whose families were devastated by tragedies on the road are joining forces to promote a road safety charity that supported them.
Summer Mace, of Gedney, who lost her mum, step-dad and sister in a collision involving a drug driver, and Amanda Cooper, whose 20-year-old daughter Amy was killed in a hit and run, have joined up with charity RoadPeace.
Shane Kelk received eight years and three months in jail for leaving Amy Cooper to die on a Holbeach St John’s Road on November 13 last year, while out on licence.
Aurelijus Cielevicius was jailed for 10-and-a-half years for causing the crash that killed Paul Carter, 41, his wife Lisa, 49, and his daughter Jade, 25 while drug driving on the A47 near King’s Lynn on January 15.
His other daughter Summer has been working with RoadPeace and set up a petition calling for life imprisonment for dangerous driving, to control curfew and bail proceedings more stringently and shift away from concurrent sentences which run alongside other sentences at the same time.
The petition is linked in with RoadPeace’s Fix Our Broken Justice System campaign.
“I have no background in law at all,” Summer said. “It is something that myself and my family have had to learn through this traumatic experience.
“You don’t realise how broken our justice system is until you are actually going through something.
“This is why I feel it is important for people to understand what is really going on and to demand these changes.
“We wanted to create a petition to try and help us re-open our appeal and to demand the changes that link to our case.”
Summer and Amanda have been speaking to each other about their experiences and grief.
While Summer continues her fight to get the sentence for the person who killed her family increased, Amanda had to be back in court last week as the man who killed her daughter appealed that his was too excessive.
The judge at the Court of Appeal though threw the appeal out.
A statement put out by Amanda and Amy’s family, said “We’re relieved that this is now over and we can actually try to grieve.
“Something we haven’t been able to do since she was killed because of the different court processes that have been involved, especially this appeal.
“The work that RoadPeace does to support bereaved families and injured victims and to campaign for better laws around dangerous driving and road deaths is vital and we owe them so much for all of their incredible hard work.
“There is a great injustice occurring across this country for the families of those who are killed on our roads every day.
“Amy was just driving home. She deserved to have made it there alive.
“We should have spent this year going on trips and visiting each other, instead we are now attending memorials and court hearings, some of which aren’t even in her name.
“We didn’t want to put ourselves in the public eye like this but we have to fight for Amy because she can’t.
“Sentencing has greatly improved, but road crime and causing death by dangerous driving are still, in our opinion, not given long enough sentences.
“Don’t forget Amy. Don’t forget the thousands that have died on our roads since the first road fatality in this country in 1896.
“Don’t forget the, on average, five deaths a day on UK roads.
“When you next get in your vehicle and drive home, remember that it is a privilege, not a right, to drive a vehicle, and be grateful that you made it home to your loved ones, just as Amy should have been able to.”
Amanda and family thanked Lincolnshire Police ‘who could not have done more’ and Peterborough Hospital as well as her prosecution team following the appeal hearing.
“Amy and her short 20 years of life were brutally, violently taken away in a crash that was entirely avoidable, from actions that no sensible, legal driver would have ever even considered.
“A driver who left her at the side of the road to die.
“A driver who was still on license and should never have been able to get back behind a wheel.
“Where was the supervision from the probation service?
“The 11 months since Amy was killed have been exhausting, painful, and indescribably awful for all of us in our own ways trying to grieve a daughter, a sister, an aunty, a girlfriend, a best friend.
“The additional weight of the appeals process, the inability to talk publicly about it and the lack of control we have had over it all has made it even worse, which we didn’t think was possible.”
For more on Roadpeace visit www.roadpeace.org
Summer’s petition is here.
