'Can happen to you', warns woman involved in collision
Méabh White has just finished her second year of pharmacy studies, almost a decade after she suffered severe injuries in a car collision.
She is 20, going on 21.
She has just finished second year pharmacy at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin and is looking forward to a bit of free time over the summer.
At least some of that time will be spent with her family in Co Roscommon: mum, Clodagh, and younger brother and sister, Rían and Sadhbh.
A decade is a long time in the life of a young person and it is almost a decade since Méabh's life was changed forever, in a matter of seconds.
On 9 July 2016, Méabh was on her way to a birthday party.
Her mum was driving with Méabh in the front passenger seat and Rían in the back of the vehicle in a rear-facing child seat.
At a crossroads half a kilometre from their home in Kilteevan, Co Roscomon, they were involved in a collision with another vehicle and their Renault Scenic was propelled through a two-metre wall into a field.
Méabh suffered the most severe injuries.
She had a cracked skull and intercranial haemorrhages, a fractured C1 vertebra in her neck, and she broke her back and her pelvis.
Méabh was transferred by helicopter to University Hospital Galway and from there to Temple Street Children's Hospital in Dublin.
She spent three days on life support and a week-and-a-half in intensive care.
When she finally woke up, Méabh was on a spinal board, staring at the ceiling.
Her mum was still in hospital in Co Galway, being treated for her serious, but non-life-threatening injuries.
Méabh's brother Rían escaped serious physical injury. His rear-facing car seat - fitted only four days before - probably saved his life.
Méabh was watched over during this time by her grandmother, Teresa, in St Gabriel's Ward in Temple Street.
"I just remember saying to her, 'is this all I'm going to be able to see the ceiling, am I ever going to be able to see anything else again?'," she said.
At that time, Méabh was under the care of consultant neurosurgeon, Mohammad Sattar. He told her there was no medical reason to explain why she woke up.
She explained: "He just said to me: 'God was good in this case'."
'This kind of stuff can happen to you'
Méabh said it was a year or so before she started to return to herself. Initially, she used a wheelchair as she had to learn to walk again.
Then, there were the mental scars that had to heal, that took time too.
Today, Méabh is looking forward to enjoying the coming summer with her family. She embraces life with both arms.
And, when she has time in her busy schedule, she addresses road safety.
"I do it because there are so many teenage road deaths, so many young people dying on our roads," Méabh told RTÉ News.
She said: "They think they are titanium, they don't understand that this kind of stuff can happen to you, even if you aren't in the wrong.
"I was 12. I had my entire teenage years permeated with pain, permeated with the legal aftermath of the crash, the trauma, the physical injuries.
"I felt I was living two separate lives because obviously I was a teenager and there is so much to being a teenager without that on the side."
Méabh is due to attend the two-day Safer Roads conference in Killarney, Co Kerry, that is being held today and tomorrow.
The conference is not open to the public. Instead, it is drawing on experts from across Europe in the areas of road design, engineering, policing, enforcement, technology and education.
The conference will explore how artificial intelligence, and analysis of road collision trends and statistics can be used to improve road safety.
Almost 300 delegates and speakers are attending the event, which is being hosted by Kerry County Council
"Road safety is not just about the road or the vehicle but also about how technology, human behaviour, enforcement and education intersect to reduce risks and prevent accidents," Kerry County Council's Road Safety Officer Declan Keogh said.
"Every branch of the road safety tree is represented and our main aim is to improve road safety for every road user," he added.
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RTÉ News
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Extra.ie
3 days ago
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Gardaí believe Satchwell 'meticulously planned wife Tina's murder for weeks'
Gardaí believe Richard Satchwell planned the murder of his wife weeks in advance because he thought she was going to leave him, has learned. Senior sources familiar with the investigation that would ultimately result in Satchwell's murder conviction said the Englishman meticulously planned the killing before going to extreme lengths to try to cover his tracks. One source said the 'speed and calmness' he displayed as he went into 'alibi mode' convinced detectives that Tina Satchwell's murder was not a spur-of-the-moment killing. They told 'Satchwell made the decision to kill his wife because she had either decided to leave him or because the relationship was deteriorating so much. Richard Satchwell. Pic: Seán Dwyer 'Tina was not happy in Youghal. She left a lovely house to move into a mortgage-free doer-upper, only for her life to be taken from her by a man she should have been able to trust.' The 58-year-old truck driver, originally from Leicester in the UK, reported his wife missing on March 20, 2017. Satchwell repeatedly lied to gardaí, journalists, family, and friends, telling them he had arrived home to their house in Youghal, east Cork, after running errands to discover his wife had left him. He maintained that his wife went missing from their home, at the very time her body was stuffed into a chest freezer before being buried under the stairs in the living room. But in October 2023 – six years after Satchwell reported her missing – gardaí discovered Tina's skeletal remains under the stairs during a second search of the house. Tina Satchwell. Pic: PA Wire Despite this gruesome discovery, Richard Satchwell pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife at their home in No. 3 Grattan Street in Youghal, arguing that he had been defending himself when he inadvertently killed her as she attacked him with a chisel. The court heard that a phone linked to Satchwell sent text messages about purchasing monkeys over the same period when he is alleged to have murdered his wife. Satchwell attempted to purchase two marmoset monkeys, called Terry and Thelma, over a period of two years, from 2015 to March 2017. On the day of Tina's murder – March 20, 2017 – Satchwell wrote to the monkey rescue, saying: 'I'm in a mess right now because my wife has said she is leaving me over this so please let the organisation know.' Richard Satchwell on RTÉ News in 2017. Pic: RTÉ The emails to the monkey rescue were one aspect of the investigation that convinced detectives that Satchwell planned the murder. A source told 'It was the investigation view that the speed and calmness that he went into alibi mode in terms of sending the monkey email.' The source also noted Tina was 'hardly dead' when Satchwell had showered, changed his clothes and then went to the post office to collect his dole. Satchwell then went on a round trip to Dungarvan in Co. Waterford – around 30kms from Youghal – for a bottle of water 'so he could say she was gone when he got back'. 'This all belies a preparedness that could only have occurred before the killing,' the source said. But while the investigation team believes Satchwell planned to kill his wife, sources familiar with the case said Tina's birth mother thought her daughter's husband was innocent until her body was discovered. Tina Satchwell's mother, Mary Collins. Pic: Brian Lawless/PA Wire Mary Collins told confidants she believed Satchwell was genuine in the numerous media appeals he made appealing for information about his wife's disappearance. 'It was a difficult time for the whole family, and Mary believed Richard,' a source told 'She never doubted him. With hindsight, it's easy to see through his lies, but at the time he was very convincing.' Tina only discovered Mary Collins was her birth mother when she found her birth certificate around the time she was making her confirmation. Up until then, she believed the grandmother who raised her was her mother. Tina Satchwell. Pic: Facebook Ms Collins attended court every day of the trial and was often visibly upset by the evidence of what Satchwell had done to her daughter. When the verdict was read just before lunchtime on Friday, several members of the Satchwell family, who occupied a full bench at the back of the courtroom, wept audibly. Three of the jurors were also crying as they walked out of the jury box for the last time. Afterwards, the family spoke to assembled media on the steps of the Central Criminal Court at Parkgate Street, Dublin. Tina's niece, Sarah Howard, to whom Satchwell had offered the freezer in which he initially stored his wife's remains after he killed her, spoke about the family's dismay at the manner in which he denigrated her aunt's name. 'During this trial, Tina was portrayed in a way that was not who she was,' she told reporters. 'Tina was our precious sister, cousin, auntie and daughter whose presence in our lives meant so much to us all. We can never put into words the impact that her loss has had on all of us. 'Tina was a kind, loving, tender soul who loved her animals as they loved her, and that's the way we want her remembered.' Ms Howard, who gave evidence in the trial just two weeks after giving birth, continued: 'Today, as family, we finally have justice for Tina, and we now ask for privacy to begin our healing.' Before she spoke, Tina's sister, Lorraine Howard, thanked the gardaí and the judge and jury for their work. She also thanked the State's legal team, Geraldine Small and Imelda Kelly. 'Your hard work and professionalism shone through like the classy ladies you are,' she said. Lorraine Howard gave evidence in the case as the only witness for the defence. But has learned that she had no idea she would be appearing in Satchwell's defence until she arrived at court. Her discomfort was visible during her questioning by defence counsel Brendan Grehan. She was brought to the witness box on foot of a statement she made to gardaí in August 2020, when Tina was still believed to be missing. She had been estranged from her sister for 15 years before her disappearance. In the statement, she described Tina as 'high-maintenance' and that her husband spent every penny he had on her. She had also claimed Tina had a bad temper and had screamed at her so badly on one occasion that it induced a miscarriage in her. But when she appeared on the witness stand last week, Ms Howard said: 'I gave that statement in anger… whereas in actual fact, he was the person I should have aimed the anger at,' gesturing with her head towards Satchwell in the dock. 'I believed her to be alive… I was angry with her at the time. I didn't see him [Satchwell] as controlling at the time… but I've revised my views on information I've seen… I wasn't aware of aspects of their relationship.' The murder trial lasted just under five weeks, and the courtroom was packed every day. Much of the credit for finally bringing Satchwell to justice is being given to the senior investigating officer, Superintendent Ann Marie Twomey, who took over the case in 2021. 'She deserves all credit,' a source said. 'She and her team were determined Tina's family would get the justice they deserve.' The five-week murder trial at the Central Criminal Court heard Satchwell, who is from Leicester in England, claimed his wife was physically abusive to him and that she died after she 'flew' at him with a chisel. He also claimed he used the belt of her dressing robe to keep her off him before she went limp. Satchwell then buried his wife under the stairs of their living room. He denied murdering Tina, but did not give evidence during the trial. He has been in custody since he was first charged on October 14, 2023, with Tina's murder. Satchwell now faces mandatory life in prison when he is sentenced next Wednesday by Judge Paul McDermott, after which victim impact statements will be heard.
