Teen died after picking up his exam results
| Published date | 13 August 2022 |
| Publication title | Liverpool Echo: Web Edition Articles (England) |
The retired teacher, now 77, cried as she recalled the moment she heard the news in hospital. She told the ECHO: "A consultant came in and said, 'I'm sorry, I've got something difficult to do now', and I just said, 'Is he dead'. He just nodded his head."
READ MORE: Dad with 'biggest heart and smile' dies in early morning crash
Andrew, her "kind, thoughtful" 18-year-old son, who loved fishing, "died instantly" in the crash. His Vauxhall Astra collided with an oncoming car after swerving to avoid the Volvo in front of it when it cut across his path at the junction of the A540 Chester High Road and Raby Park Road in Neston.
He was travelling to a football match with friends after receiving his exam results from Wirral Met College that morning. Pauline holds onto the thought that he at least got to know he'd secured a place at Salford University, and she's "eternally thankful" for getting to "kiss and touch him" one last time in hospital, saying: "He was lying there, his face looked perfect, his hair was still immaculate. He just had a white sheet over him."
More than 28 years after the crash in June 1994, Pauline still thinks about her eldest son every day. She told the ECHO: "When something like this happens to you, it changes your life forever. When Andrew died, it didn't just change my life. My husband, my other children, Andrew's friends, so many people's lives were affected by it."
She wonders how the driver, who was never caught, "sleeps at night knowing what they did". Despite this, she wouldn't have wanted the driver to go to jail had they come forward, apologised and had their licence taken away.
Instead Pauline turned her energy towards campaigning after reading about the same "dangerous junction", which she'd always avoided, even before Andrew's death. She set her sights on lobbying politicians to make it safer, telling herself: "As long as I live and I'm able, I'm going to carry on campaigning"
Pauline joined RoadPeace -a charity supporting people bereaved or injured in crashes -where she became a trustee and North West coordinator. The charity campaigns to reduce road dangers, and organises a...
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