Mums call on Government to ban sales of cars to minors
Mothers are calling on the Government to make it illegal to sell a car to a minor to stop teens dying on the roads.
The grieving mum of 16-year-old Kimberly O'Connor, who was killed in a crash just yards from her home in February, is one of those voices.
Kimberley took a lift home on a wet night from teenagers who did not have a licence but had bought a car cheaply. The driver, who was 16, lost control of the 19-year-old vehicle and smashed into a concrete wall near Kimberley's home.
Her mum Jennifer now has to wake every morning and look out at the crash site where her beloved daughter, a singer who had dreamed of a life on the stage, was killed.
Jennifer's sister, Valerie Haynes, herself a mum-of-four, said that Harbour View Road in the north of Cork city where Kimberley was killed is "used as a motorway by day and a racetrack at night".
"We need a law banning car sales to underage teenagers," she said. "People who sell them these cars need to be held accountable."
Another mother, who wanted to remain anonymous, said that she lives in fear that her son will kill someone else joyriding.
Niamh, not her real name, also from Cork, first spoke through a recording on PJ Coogan on 96FM.
She told the Irish Examiner that there needs to be an urgent crackdown on those selling cars to under-17s.
She said that she reported her son's joyriding to gardai after he bought a car for €50 from an unscrupulous seller.
She has tracked down car dealers herself since to warn them not to sell vehicles to her 16-year-old son, but the law, she said, is not on her side.
She now wants stricter regulation of car sales making selling a car to anyone under 17 a criminal offence.
"I live in fear that my son will kill someone else," she said.
“I have my eyes on him 24/7, always checking where he is. I can’t relax at all."
Thomas Gould, Sinn Fein TD for Cork North Central, plans to bring the issue up in the Dail as soon as possible.
"For the last number of years more and more people have been buying what they call ‘company cars’" he said.
"They buy them for €100 or €200 between three or four teenagers so they’re not stealing them. But they’re driving with no insurance, no NCT, no road tax, the cars may not be roadworthy and they don’t have a driving licence.
“You should not be able to sell a car to someone without a driving licence. You should be able to log onto a website, enter the buyers driving licence number and register it to the buyer before the sale goes through.
"If the buyer has an accident and was not licensed to drive, then the seller would also be legally responsible,” he said.
Valerie Haynes led a silent protest today with local residents of Harbour View Road holding placards to demand an end to the carnage on the roads.
"We did a survey of local residents and everyone lives in fear of their life on that road," she said.
"A few weeks after Kimberley's death, there was another crash at the same time in the same place as where Kimberley died. They were teenagers too. It opened the wound again for my sister. It was like someone just pressed play on the night Kimberley died all over again.
"We don't want any more families going through what we're going through."
Mick Nugent, Sinn Fein Councillor in Cork, called for traffic calming measures on Harbour View Rd in Cork City Council this week.
“Residents want more traffic calming measures on that road, it’s one of the busiest in the city. We’re going to keep at it. You could put in tabletop ramps that would not be bone rattlers for the buses going up to Apple,” he said.
