Safe Speed Forums

Freak crash kills girl,18

By Chris Riches, Daily Express, 7 August 2006

A MOTHER has paid an emotional tribute to her daughter after she was crushed to death by a parked sports car that had been smashed into by a van.

Eluned Cleverley, 18, was heading home in the, early hours of Saturday when the white van sent the empty Ford Puma rocketing on to the pavement, killing her instantly. A 20-year-old male friend with her had minor injuries.

Last night police were quizzing the 24-year-old van driver on suspicion of drink-driving and causing death by dangerous driving. Eluned's mother Ann, 51, said:

"She was a lovely, lovely girl. Talented, beautiful, crazy and loveable. She was such a popular girl, with all her life ahead of her. She had such a wide circle of friends, a typical teenager She was just so enjoying life."

Systems analyst Mrs Cleverley, of Hoylake, Wirral, added: "She had gone to an 18th birthday party and rang at 1.30am wanting a lift but we'd had a couple of glasses of wine at home and didn’t feel it was right to drive. She said she would go to a friend's house to order a taxi. She said, 'I love you mum'. Twenty minutes later she was killed."

Husband Edward, 58, said: "Normally when she rings I have just gotten to sleep and when I have woken up properly, I go to get her. We have been the most conscientious parents. We would always go and get her and run her friends home. On this one occasion when we didn't go, this happens. It is just unbelievable."

Their other daughter Carys, 13, is devastated over Eluned, who had been due to start an art and design college course.

Just think!

My first thought on this family tradigdy!

If the parents had "D&D'd" to bring her home she would *almost certainly* be alive today!

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"The road to a police state is paved with public safety legislation"

You can never know that, and it's unfair on the parents to suggest it IMO.

I'd say that chances are being a passenger in a car with a drunk driver carries a higher chance of you being in an accident than that of being hit by a drunk driver while walking home.

As the article states it's a freak accident, there's not much you can learn from this apart from the obvious bit about needing more police out catching drunk and/or incompetent drivers.

The girls parents did everything correctly IMO, the whole thing is just bloody unlucky. You cannot predict something like that, you cannot learn from it and nothing could really be done to stop it happening again, apart from better police patrols. That said we don't actually know if the driver was drunk or incompetent, it could easilly have been mechanical failure, a blow out, or an evasive manouvre to avoid something that the article doesn't mention.

All in all, it's really shitty luck, and my sympathies go to the family.

It is a complex issue. (and *far* too complex for me at this time of night) Nevertheless I stand by my original statement since I believe it is (Almost certainly) correct! (even if somewhat controversial)

Think about it, the van driver was going to be there *anyway*. If she had been picked up she *wouldnt* have been! What is the probabaility that her parents would have crashed drunk? Verry small actually! about 1:500,000 probabally!

Having said all that, it was *still* a freak accdent and probabally something that one should not draw too may conclusions from. Sometimes in life situataions arise that can only come under the heading of "Shit Happens" and ultimatly there is nothithing anyone can reasonably do to avoid it.

Goodnight!

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"The road to a police state is paved with public safety legislation"

Ok. I'll grant that in this specific instance, then the pickup by a drunk driver would have prevented the accident, but so would leaving the house 30 seconds earlier or later, walking at a different speed or any number of things that are far more preferable than having someone else drive drunk. I just don't like the implication that driving drunk to give someone a lift is a good thing as it reduces pedestrian fatalities as this is plainly untrue.

True enough mate, but what were the chances of this poor kid being struck by an empty car? Maybe 1 in 10,000,000? But it happened, due to someone DUI...

My condolences to Eluned's family.

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Aquila



Licat volare si super tergum aquila volat...

I'm siding with Dusty on this one. Lum you keep trotting out the drunk driver couplet. Think about it. Her parents said a couple of glasses of wine. In my book that doesn't make one a drunk. Therefore not a drunk driver. If breathalysed he might have been over or under the 35 breath limit.

I was a friend of Nin.

MGBGT Thankyou.

Ed, Nins dad blames himself for not going to pick her up, he feels he failed as a father. Imagine living with that for the rest of your life.
Even though IT WAS NOT HIS FAULT.

You can't say that if he drunk and drove she would still be alive.
If he had gone, it could of been him in a car crash and he could have died leaving Nin without her dad.
He could of hit someone else and some other poor parents could have lost their child.

She could have left 5 minutes earlier, she could have stayed out.
She could have stayed in.

The fact is, it happened. And there is nothing that could have changed that.

The only person to blame is Lucas Sonta.
He chose to drink and drive and look at what happened.

Ed made the decision to abide by the law and not drink and drive.

It's heartbreaking seeing Ed in such a state, his life is so empty because he believes it's his fault his daughter is out of his life.
Nothing can changed what happened. And her family, her friends all wish it hadn't have happened, but NO-ONE can say if he had broke the law and picked her up that she would have survived.



It's her 19th birthday tomorrow.
Think of her parents and little Carys.

And I pray Ed never see's this site and what people have said, because that would completely break him. It's people like that and newspapers that have made him believe he is too blame.
He made the right decision.
Sonta didn't.

xxx

And thankyou Lum too.

This man gets 6 years which he will serve three for killing Nin would was only 18.

Man jailed after Eluned's death

A van driver who killed an art student after shunting a parked car for 17 metres into her in Seacombe has been jailed for six years.

Lucas Sonta, 24, was nearly two-and-a-half times over the drink drive limit when he ploughed the Mercedes Sprinter van into a Ford Puma car in the early hours of August 5.

The car was shunted into 18-year-old Eluned Cleverley as she walked home from a friend's birthday party.

She died at the scene with multiple injuries. Her friend, Tobias Eaton, broke his foot.

Sonta, a Polish carpenter who has lived in the UK for the last three years, pleaded guilty to causing death by driving without due care and attention while under the influence of alcohol.

He was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday.

The court heard that Sonta has a previous conviction for drink-driving in his native Poland from July last year.

He was fined £200 and banned from driving for one year after being caught with 27mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood - a figure which would not have exceeded the UK limit of 80mg/100ml.

On the night of Miss Cleverley's death, he had 192mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood - more than twice the UK limit.

Sonta initially claimed he had swerved to avoid a person in the road, but later withdrew the claim. He also withdrew a claim that he had drunk just four pints of lager, and wrote a letter to court expressing sorrow for his actions.


'Shining star'

On 5 August, after a night's drinking, he took a friend's van without permission and drove to buy more alcohol in the early hours.

He was travelling at 50mph along Seacombe Road when he lost control on a bend and smashed into the parked Ford Puma, which travelled 16.7 metres (55ft) before striking Miss Cleverley and her friend.

Judge Henry Globe QC, the Recorder of Liverpool, said he hoped the case would be "a timely reminder as we approach the Christmas period to anyone considering driving while over the limit".

In a statement, Miss Cleverley's parents, Ann and Edward, said their daughter was "a shining star".

Hi Malice Doll. Welcome to the site, and I hope you're doing ok.

You're right of course that this couldn't have been prevented by her father. It's absured to say he should have picked her up: no one is capable of seeing the future.

Completely agree!

From what I read everyone (except that driver) acted in a manner expected from them.
We will have failed as a civilised society if we come to rely upon such preventative measures to protect against such a crime.


My thoughts go out to you MD and her family.

Steven

Outstanding logic mate!

Can't help but echo the more recent sentiments.

Her dad did the right thing when he erred on the side of caution regarding drink driving. Polish f*cknut clearly didn't

Things I would like to know:

Did the drunkard have a licence?
Was he insured on the vehicle he was driving (no, he took it without permission)?
Why was he not charged with TWOCing and driving uninsured?
How did the parked car travel 17m, was the handbrake on?

We live our whole lives on the other side of what-ifs, I hope Ed doesn't spend the rest of his blaming himself for this. If he had driven drunk the situation could have left poor Carys without a sister or a father!

To call this a freak accident however, and suggest that nothing can be learnt from it is wrong. Drink driving is on the increase, and the only way to stop the rot is more police on the roads, 24/7, breathalising erratic drivers, providing punishment and deterrant. If the current administration weren't so intent on making profit from road-safety, rather than treating it as the lives and deaths of real people, people who matter to people, good people who make the world a better place, then they could stop sitting back, twiddling their thumbs, blaming everything on speed and raking in the pennies from their bright yellow cash machines. They could put their hands in their pockets and fund some more real police officers, get the blasted machines off our roads, and sell them for scrap to pay the bills.

Jesus, more shite!
And if my auntie had bollocks she'd be my uncle.

To be fair, I think the original comment was fairly offhand and was intended to reflect on the sad irony. I didn't read it as an intention to place any blame.

Welcome to SS, MaliceDoll. We are a fairly eclectic lot, as you have seen from our posts but, as in all BBS's, it would be a dull old world if we all shouted the same words in the same direction.

Eluned's death was one of those gross indecencies that 'Lady Luck' deals out on occasion. It moved me deeply.

The most impressive thing I derived from it was the decision by her parents to recognise their own limitations as to the fact that they had consumed alcohol and would not risk driving and that they recognised the fact that Eluned was an adult and perfectly capable of finding her own way home.

There was no way that they could have foreseen the presence of the drunk Polack and thus his idiocy causing their daughter's death.

I drink in the evenings and, if my son or daughter are out and require picking up, I send a cab for them - I don't care how much it costs, as it will never cost my licence or, worse still, a life.

Her parents' decision on that night and the result of that decision showed exceptional personal responsibility.

Each time we step out of our homes, even on the shortest journey, it is by some Grace or other that we return unharmed...


Rest peacefully, Eluned...

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Aquila



Licat volare si super tergum aquila volat...

Erudite comment paulw - I take my hat off to you

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Richard Ceen
We live in a time where emotions and feelings count far more than the truth, and there is a vast ignorance of science (James Lovelock 2005)

A friends 16yo daughter died recently, she was born with a major heart defect and it was thanks to modern medicine she had such a normal life. Her parents blame themselves for her death. It is the fate of every parent who has to bury their child, no matter what the circumstances.

As far as this tragedy goes I think we should bare in mind that the Dusty seems to have been being ironic. And that if any concerned parent had broken the DD rules once and so unknowingly avoid a tragedy they may have done it again another time and so brought about another one.

Barkstar

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The difference between intelligence and stupidity is that intelligence has limits.