Family of Wallasey road victim call for drink-drive ban

Nov 19 2008 by Sue McCann, Birkenhead News

Eluned

GRIEF engulfs Edward and Ann Cleverley afresh each morning when they wake and remember their daughter is no longer with them.

The couple, from Meols, lost 18-year-old Eluned in August 2006 when she was knocked down by a drink-driver in Seabank Road, Wallasey, while walking to a friend’s house to call a taxi.

Her mother Ann said: “She was a teenager on the brink of young adulthood and about to start an exciting chapter in her life.”

In December 2006, Polish joiner Lucasz Sonta was found guilty of causing Eluned’s death by driving without due care and attention having consumed excess alcohol. He was jailed for six years.

The family last week joined first Big Brother winner Craig Phillips and his sister Beverley at St Michael’s High School in Crosby to support Road Safety Week 2008 and launch new research findings. Craig’s father, Les, was killed by a drink-driver in 1985.

Brake, the body which organises Road Safety Week, has released the findings of research into road death and injury in the UK. It found that each week in the North West alone, five people are killed, 60 people are seriously injured and around 540 people are hurt.

Ann Cleverley said: “We need to adopt a zero tolerance approach on this and ban drinking and driving altogether.

“People are confused about what the legal limit is and we all have different tolerances to alcohol. A blanket ban would stop any uncertainty.”

Eluned’s sister, Carys, 16, added: “She was my best friend as well as my sister and nothing can replace that.

“I would plead with anybody thinking of drinking and driving to leave the car at home and pay for a taxi.”