Grief-stricken Dumbarton dad in road safety call

Nov 21 2008 by Laura McLachlan, Lennox Herald (main ed)

NO parent should have to bury their child – that’s the message a grieving dad is sending to all drivers this Road Safety Week.

Richard Fuge, of McGregor Drive in Dumbarton, tragically lost his 25-year-old daughter Alice-Anne in a fatal five car pile-up on the A82 in August 2005.

Now the retired traffic policeman has backed the road safety campaign ‘Stop, imagine, change’ – and has used his own traumatic experience to urge drivers to think when they turn the ignition key.

He said: “Before people get behind the wheel they should imagine doing what I had to do – I had to go to a mortuary and identify my daughter’s body when I’d been having a laugh and a joke with her just hours before.

“My son had to come with me and the effect Alice-Anne’s death has had on my family has quite simply been devastating.”

Last October, lorry driver Colin Kane, 37, was acquitted of causing the deaths of Alice-Anne, Balloch woman Jessie McCann, 44, and Argentinian golf caddy Nestor Stiles, 36, by dangerous driving in the crash near Balloch’s Stoneymollan roundabout.

The trucker admitted during his trial that he had blacked out moments before his lorry plunged into the back of Alice-Anne’s Peugeot, due to a condition called obstructive sleep apnoea with which he was diagnosed following the crash.

Mr Fuge added: “In Alice-Anne’s case, the driver allegedly blacked out at the wheel – that should never be allowed to happen.

“If there was one thing I would urge people to do before they drive is ensure that they are fit and well – otherwise someone else pays the price.”

Three years on, Mr Fuge says the pain is still there and admits that years of experience breaking bad news to families about their loved ones can never prepare you for how it changes your life.

“It doesn’t just fade away in a few months, I still think about her everyday,” he said. “Sometimes I even go to put her dinner on and remember she isn’t coming home.

“I worked on the job in Argyll for years and sometimes had to deliver bad news to people I knew.

“I thought I understood how they were feeling, but nothing can ever prepare you for how losing someone in a crash and having them taken from you so suddenly can affect you.”

Between November 21 and November 24, officers from Argyll and Dumbarton Roads policing departments will be operating high visibility patrols throughout the country road network, with a particular focus on dangerspots.