This year 216 lives have been lost on NSW roads, attributed to high risk driving. The Mahony family speak out about the loss of 15-year-old Sarah.
TWENTY THREE years have passed since 15-year-old Sarah Mahony died in a car crash in the early hours of an October morning in 1992, but for her family the years in between are meaningless. The loss is still deeply felt.
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Sarah was a year 9 student at St Pius X High School, Adamstown, when her life was cut short. Seated in the passenger seat of a vehicle being driven by an 18-year-old male, Sarah did not stand a chance when the driver lost control of the vehicle after hitting the gravel on the shoulder of Burwood Road, at Whitebridge.
The car slammed into a telegraph pole impacting on the passenger side. Sarah was killed instantly. The driver sustained a brain injury, while a third young passenger survived unscathed.
Older sister Rachael Keenan said she was with her mother Pauline Mahony when on the night of the tragedy they dropped Sarah at a friend’s house for a sleepover.
“It was a few weeks before her 16th birthday,” Ms Keenan said.
“We waved goodbye to her smiling face...and that was it, the last smile we would see.”
The family were unaware of a change of plans which saw Sarah go with her friend to another house where other young people gathered. At some stage Sarah and her friend left the house in a car. By 1.30am she was dead.
I kept thinking I would wake up and everything would be fine...I remember touching her coffin and not wanting to walk away, because that would mean it was true.
- Rachael Keenan
In 1992 the Mahony family owned and operated the Mary Ellen Hotel, at Merewether. When Sarah’s father, licensee Paul Mahony, heard knocking at the downstairs door of the hotel, at 3am, he assumed the kegs had been delivered early.
He can still recall, with painful veracity, feeling like he had been “hit with a sledgehammer” when two police officers delivered the chilling news, his youngest child was dead – she was gone.
Rebecca Mahony, Sarah’s older sister was in Japan. The family had to convey the grim news over the phone. She was met at Mascot Airport by her siblings, Ms Keenan and Luke Mahony, just 24 hours later.
“She was distraught...we all were,” Ms Keenan said.
“The Federal Police let us use their office. She was refusing to believe it.”
Ms Keenan said the days after the crash were “surreal.”
“I just didn’t think it could be true,” she said. “Someone has got something wrong.
“I kept thinking I would wake up and everything would be fine.”
In the days after, and as word of the tragedy spread, it seemed the whole of Newcastle shared the family’s grief. A funeral was held at St Joseph’s Catholic Church at The Junction where the congregation spilled out into Farquhar and Kenrick streets.
“I remember touching her coffin and not wanting to walk away, because that would mean it was true,” Ms Keenan said.
Three weeks later Ms Keenan went ahead with her plans to marry. The family thought they should try to carry on with life.
At every family event since – the births, marriages and celebrations – the grief returns with force.
“It brings your attention back to the fact she should have been part of it,” Ms Keenan said.
“You learn to live with it, push it aside, but then at times it blindsides you and it hits you again.”
The littlest thing can trigger it, a song in the supermarket. There is a place for her forever.
- Rachael Keenan
The Mahony’s are a private family, and while they still remember and appreciate the support they received in the days and months following Sarah’s death, they have never sought to publicise their pain.
They have agreed to talk about the events of that night, these years later, because they believe the message of road safety is still not getting through.
This year 40 young people aged between 17 and 25 have lost their lives on NSW roads, this is an increase of 38 per cent on 2015 figures for the January to July period. In total 216 lives have been lost on our roads since January.
Ms Keenan, a former police officer and mother of two, said she does not believe training for driving in all conditions was adequate.
“While 120 hours of training is important, a significant amount of it is done in conditions which are not challenging,” she said.
“We need to deliver to our youth the cold hard facts and statistics. We also need to train them to confidently manage the vehicles they drive.
“They especially need training in how to brake properly in all types of conditions; know when brakes become ineffective and also be aware and trained on how they can avoid or best manage heavy braking situations.
“Controlled training facilities may be costly, however the emotional and actual cost of mopping up after another young life is cut short outweighs this, in my opinion.”
Traffic and Highway Patrol Command’s Chief Inspector Phillip Brooks said high risk driving was to blame for this year’s 43 per cent increase in road fatalities.
“Speeding, drink and drug driving; failing to wear a seat-belt or helmet, driver fatigue and distraction by mobile phones is what we believe is behind it,” he said.
And while the introduction of driver log books was a positive step, Chief Inspector Brooks said young drivers would also benefit from road craft training courses.
Federal statistics released on Thursday showed an 8.5 per cent increase in road deaths across the country in the past twelve months over the same time last year.