Shropshire Star

Shropshire car crash victim: 'How speeding driver almost killed us both'

A Shropshire man seriously injured in a fatal crash involving a speeding driver today said his whole family is still suffering from the aftermath eight years on.

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Today John McSherry spoke out as new figures reveal 24 road deaths were caused by drivers exceeding the speed limits in the region over the past six years.

The figures, released by West Mercia Police, also show high-speed crashes caused 134 serious injuries and a further 639 people with less serious injuries since 2011.

Mr McSherry and his wife Michelle., from Claverley, were involved in a collision on the B4176, which runs off the main Bridgnorth to Wolverhampton road, in 2009.

The accident left them fighting for their lives as the couple suffered multiple injuries and were temporarily wheelchair bound following the head-on smash.

The other driver, a 37-year-old who was more than three-and-a-half times the drink-drive limit and driving at about 90mph on the 60mph road, was killed when his Vauxhall Astra collided with Mr McSherry's Mitsubishi.

Mr McSherry has always been a larger than life character. He and Michelle used to run the Poplar Cottage tea shop near Claverley and he was famous for entertaining customers with his impressions of Frank Spencer.

The couple posed for photographs in hospital back in 2009 as they recovered from their injuries.

But today Mr McSherry said his wife and two sons Daniel and Dominic continue to live with the after-effects of the collision.

The couple were forced to close the tea rooms because of the injuries they suffered.

Wreckage of couple's car after the crash

He said: "What happened was years ago now – nearly eight years ago – but we will never get over it, we got a life sentence when this happened. The combination of speed and drink-driving is a lethal weapon, we know that for ourselves.

"But it wasn't just our lives that changed, our son's lives changed too. Daniel was 15 years old at the time and Dominic was 11, imagine visiting your mum and dad's beds in intensive care at that age.

"People forget that it is the families that suffer too, not just those who were involved in the crash. It's the ripple effect."

Since the collision Mr McSherry and his family have been calling for speed cameras on the stretch of B4176 running off the road, where more than five people have died in crashes since 2005. But he said he has become fed-up as nothing has been done to prevent speeding drivers on the road. He is now calling for money to be spend on preventative measures – rather than on investigating the circumstances after a crash.

He said: "It costs more than £1 million per fatal crash. That money can always be found when a crash happens, so why can't it be spent on preventing the crash?

"I believe speed cameras cost about £30,000, that's better than spending more than £1 million afterwards. It's hardly rocket science and it shouldn't take another death before something is done about it."

Following the crash, Mr McSherry's family was told he had a 10 per cent chance of survival, while his wife had a 30 per cent chance.

The couple's eldest son Daniel, 22, said his family's lives changed forever as a result of the collision.

He said: "What happened to my mum and dad was unfair. Don't get me wrong, my parents don't have a bad life but their old life was taken away by what happened."

According to findings from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), inappropriate speed contributes to about 10 per cent of all injury collisions reported to the police, 13 per cent of crashes resulting in a serious injury and 24 per cent of collisions which result in a death.

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