Mum tells of heartbreak at son's death in new doc about tragedies on our roads
A distraught mother of a passenger who died in a crash where the driver of the car he was in was highly intoxicated, has pleaded with others to be aware of the devastating consequences of driving under the influence.
Three young men died instantly when their speeding car collided with a people carrier in Co Waterford.
The driver of the Volkswagen Golf car, Eamon Dixon (22), was found to be four and a half times over the alcohol limit, and had a number of drugs in his system, including traces of cocaine.
His two passengers, Michael 'Mikey' Tobin (38) and Kenneth O'Sullivan (39), were also found at their post mortem to have consumed large quantities of alcohol.
Evan Tobin lost his brother Mikey
A people carrier carrying a couple – Gary Fenton and Mary Bermingham, as well as Mary's four young children – was pulverised by the impact of the car which collided with them on the wrong side of the road.
Injuries
Gary, Mary and Mary's oldest daughter had to be airlifted to hospital in three separate helicopters and suffer lifelong injuries to this day.
In a new RTÉ documentary Impact: Anatomy of a Car Crash, Michael Tobin's mother Anne told of the devastating impact of the crash which took her son who was a passenger in the car driven by Eamon Dixon.
'If they want to do drugs, if they want to drink, stay in someone's house. Leave the cars behind. Don't get out on that road and put other people life in danger,' she said.
But much to Anne's shock, father-of-three Michael had small traces of cocaine in his system too.
'We were told yes there was a tiny bit of cocaine in his system that morning,' confirms Anne. 'Never in my wildest dream that somebody would come to me and say, 'Anne, Michael, yes here is a little bit of cocaine'. I would be saying to them, 'nah, not him, definitely not'.
'It was devastating to be quite honest. You certainly wouldn't wish it on anybody. You're told things that you don't want to hear. I suppose all parents think their children are angels.'
Just over 1,450 people have died on Irish roads since that horrific car crash near Dungarvan in Co Waterford on December 4 2016.
Gary Fenton and Mary and Chloe Bermingham
But alarmingly the programme highlights that the majority of crashes are caused by young men driving under the influence of some sort of substance.
Eamon and Michael hailed from Dungarvan, while Kenneth, who was the owner of the car, lived in Blackpool in Cork.
Anne recalls that Michael would have known Eamon as he was a neighbour.
'Mikey, he had the tree up, he had the balloons up. He was hands on for Christmas, he loved it. But Christmas was for the children, and that's the way he operated, loved Christmas,' she said.
'Mikey hadn't worked for a while because he was full-time dad. Mikey was the first child in the family and he was spoiled.
Devilment
'Mikey was always out and about very early in the morning. He was the one guy you could never keep in the house, up gone out. Up to all sorts of devilment down through the days, but boys will be boys.
'The weekend began, I rang him Friday evening and he said 'Mam, I have no plans for the weekend'. I said 'OK then, that's grand'.
Firemen Brendan Morrissey and George Hamilton were on the scene
'The owner (of the car) Kenneth Sullivan, was not known to Mikey. He had to run across the road to get another friend of his to sit with the children while he was leaving the house.
'That guy then was shouting not to get into the car.. But anyway they got into the car and that's all about all I do know about that morning.'
Mikey's younger brother Evan said he was like another father figure to him.
'Mikey loved Metallica. He'd be listening to music, there was always music in the car. Mikey was one of the guys who just wanted to have fun and go wild, get in a car, and just go for a spin,' he said.
Mary Bermingham, from Banteer Co Cork, was a front seat passenger in a Citroen Picasso – the other car that morning – which was driven by her partner Gary Fenton, from Cobh.
'I saw a Santa thing online in Waterford, similar to Lapland. Last minute I booked that and I thought 'this will be great'. Of course I told the kids, they were so happy and excited,' recalls Mary.
That morning as the family ventured off to Dungarvan they decided to go straight there rather than stop for diesel as they children were excited about getting there.
Mary has four children, three girls and a boy, who has cerebral palsy.
Chloe, Mary's daughter who was airlifted due to her injuries, remembers seeing the oncoming car.
'I had an earphone in because as a teenager I was obsessed about music and I had an earphone in listening to music in the back of the car,' she remembers.
'There was like half a second, I looked up at the road. Suddenly there was a car right there in front of us. When I looked up from my phone, I just seen a car coming head on and I remember that I did panic.
Bang
'I still remember that bang. I can still hear that bang. I can feel my body being thrown forward still, it's just horrific.'
Emergency services were called to the scene with firemen Brendan Morrissey and George Hamilton explaining on the programme how they had to carefully get the family out of the Citroen.
Just recently the two men got to meet Mary and a now grown up Chole.
'I knew that they were drink driving but not to the extent that they were. When you hear it out loud. Obviously I don't think they set out to kill anybody or to crash into us, but…,' reflects Chloe.
Mary's brother Christopher was aged 24 when he was killed in a single vehicle car crash in 2014.
She believes he was with her in spirit helping her during her ordeal when she was fighting for her life on the day of the crash.
'It just changed lives, a ripple effect on so many people. Their own families included,' she maintains.
'Maybe if my own brother hadn't passed in the same way, I mightn't have that bit of compassion, but I do because I know the pain it brings, so I do think about the families.'
Impact: Anatomy of a car crash tonight RTÉ 1 9.35pm and RTÉ Player.
Parents Michael and Ann Tobin
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