MORE than 300 were killed or injured on Wiltshire’s roads last year... today we look at the impact on those left behind

“MY brother’s death tore my family apart,” sighs Steve Carr. “It doesn’t just take a person’s life; it affects their family, a community. My life spiralled out of control.”

Steve’s brother Paul was just 16 when he and four other youngsters were mowed down on Akers Way by a reckless driver in 1991, in one of the worst road accidents in Swindon history. Steve, who was 15, had been due to join them but decided against it.

The 25-year-old driver, who was disqualified at the time after a string of offences, was racing another Ford Escort at 80mph – twice the speed limit – when he clipped the car and lost control.

His vehicle flipped on its roof and crashed into Paul and his friends, who were sitting on a bench by the side of the road. Paul died instantly along with Ian Lilley, seven, and Sheree Lear, eight. Paula Barnes, 16, and Belinda Brown, 19, died from their injuries in hospital.

The driver was sentenced to five years in prison for reckless driving.

The horrific accident sent shockwaves through the community and sparked fury from those who had been campaigning for the speed limit to be lowered and for tougher safety measures enforced in the area.

But while the people of Swindon healed over time, Steve and his family never recovered from the sudden and cruel loss of their brother and son.

Within a year, his parents had divorced and Steve fell into a destructive cycle of alcohol and drug abuse. He ended up on the streets and attempted suicide.

He had plummeted into a pit of despair when he decided to seek counselling for the first time last October and was finally diagnosed with borderline post-traumatic stress disorder – the enduring after-effect of the accident which not only claimed his brother but threw his own life off course.

“I received no support following my loss; my father decided that my sister and I would be OK,” recalls Steve, as National Road Victim Month gets underway.

“Soon afterwards, my parents divorced, I was forced from my family home and lost contact with my mother, father and sister.

“I soon found that the only relationship I could keep together was with a bottle and drugs. Eventually adulthood took over and I felt like I had it all together; until I found cocaine, or cocaine found me.

"I became an addict in a very short space of time. I lost everything. It took three suicide attempts – one of which nearly worked – before I actually got help.”

Now on a much stronger footing, the 40-year-old from Rodbourne is determined to share his harrowing fight back from alcohol dependency and drug addiction to raise awareness of the life-long effects a lapse in judgement on the road can have on those left behind – from the families, to the fire crews and police officers confronted with scenes of carnage, and even the perpetrators themselves.

He admits he still feels his brother’s killer got off lightly.

“To be honest I don’t think it was a fair term,” concedes Steve, who recently completed a three-month walk from Land’s End to John O’Groats walk to break the stigma surrounding mental health issues.

“But he has to deal with it for the rest of his life too," he said. Nobody goes out in their car to deliberately kill someone.”

While awareness campaigns are bringing home the dangers of driving under the influence or texting while driving, the number of people killed or seriously injured on the roads has climbed since 2013.

A total of 307 people were seriously injured or killed on Swindon and Wiltshire’s roads in 2015, and 314 in 2014 compared to 240 in 2013.

There were 33 deaths last year compared to 25 in 2013.

This increase could be down to an overall rise in traffic, prompted by lower fuel costs.

Ian Hopkins, road safety manager for Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: “The Department for Transport has reported that overall traffic on the roads has increased by two per cent since 2014 and this will partly be down to the cheaper fuel prices available.

“An increase in traffic on the roads will inevitably have an effect on the number of road traffic collisions.”

According to the fire service, 2015 saw an especially high number of motorcyclist fatalities: 10 compared to four on average in previous years.

While deaths have risen in recent years, they have declined overall since 2006 – when 62 people were killed in road accidents.

The four main causes of deaths and injuries are not wearing a seatbelt, distractions – especially mobile phones – speed and drinking. The latter accounted for 240 deaths in the UK during 2014, or 14 per cent of all road traffic collision deaths.

Exceeding the speed limit was reported as a contributory factor for 16 per cent of fatal accidents in 2014 nationwide.

The charity Brake estimates that for every 1mph reduction in average speeds, crash rates fall by approximately five per cent.

If the driver who killed her seven-year-old son Tyrese had not been speeding on Drove Road in March 2008, Caroline Hannah believes he may still be alive today.

She and Tyrese were walking his dog Odi, when a 20-year-old, driving at between 45 and 50mph in the 30mph zone, lost control on a bend, mounted the pavement and ploughed into the little boy before smashing into a lamppost. Tyrese, from Old Walcot, died just hours later. The driver was handed a three-year jail sentence.

“What I really want is for all drivers to realise the difference they can make through the simple act of slowing down,” says Caroline, who has joined the GO 20 campaign calling for the national urban 30mph speed limit to be reduced to 20mph.

“The children you read about in the papers being killed and injured on our roads are real children. My beautiful Tyrese filled my time with love, laughter and life.

“So many drivers just don’t make the connection and continue to drive too fast. By slowing down to 20 in communities, you’re helping to avoid tragedies and making our communities safer, better places.”

Remaining vigilant on the roads at all times is paramount. No-one is immune to an accident, even travelling at a reasonable speed.

Helen Lucas’s 11-year-old son Daniel Climance died last June after being struck by a road sweeper on Station Road in Purton. Daniel was cycling with his older brother and father and was following them through a gap between parked cars on the narrow road when he was hit.

His family believe he may have been frightened by something which led him to wobble and turn into the path of the sweeper.

An inquest found the road sweeper was travelling at the legal speed at the time of the collision.

“In our situation it was a just a pure accident,” says the 42-year-old solicitor from North Swindon.

“The problem in Purton is that the roads are just not designed for the heavy volume of traffic coming through them. But in general, vehicles are dangerous weapons.

“I think it’s important that people are aware,” adds Helen, who has thrown her support behind the 20s Plenty for Purton campaign, which hopes to bring down the speed limit to 20mph in the village.

“If they don’t pay attention to what they’re doing, take their eye off the road, it only takes a minute.”

It was over in a flash; but Daniel’s family will have to cope with his absence for the rest of their lives.

“Every day it’s the same,” she said.

“You wake up and you remember and get that awful feeling in the pit of your stomach. Even one life is too many lives.”

For more information about National Road Victim Month go to www.roadpeace.org