Athlone woman takes her driving licence reform campaign to Europe

An Athlone woman who has waged a long-running campaign to have new laws introduced on access to driving licences for people with severe mental health issues has been invited to address a European Commission workshop in Brussels tomorrow (Thursday),

Maeve Kelly from Coosan has been invited to make a presentation on the revision of the European Directive on driving licences, which was agreed in 2006 and is due to be reviewed in the coming months.

“If I can save even one life, or prevent any other family experiencing the on-going trauma we are living with, then it will be a very worthwhile exercise,” says Maeve, whose life “completely changed” when she was involved in a traffic collision in 2016 involving a man whose inquest subsequently heard had “severe and enduring mental illness.”

“I still grieve for the person I was before the accident,” admits Meave, who says she has had to adjust to “a whole new normal” and continues to suffer from a number of significant health issues as a result of her accident, including central nervous system sensitivity.

Since 2016, Maeve Kelly, whose teenage daughter was also involved in the collision, has been calling for the introduction of legislation to allow for the temporary removal of driving licences from drivers suffering from severe mental issues, but without success.

“I contacted every politician in the country, but I was told it was a no go area,” she says, “so I am delighted to have been granted speaking time at one of the workshops in Brussels on the revision of driving licences and I see it as a major step forward” she says.

Maeve has been granted speaking rights by the President of the European Commisson, and is one of a number of members of the European Federation of Road Traffic Victims who will address three separate workshops this week in the Belgian capital.

The 2019 inquest into the death of Gerard Roan, whose car collided with Maeve Kelly and her teenage daughter at 11.20pm on March 20, 2016, heard that he was in the care of the Roscommon Mental Health Services at the time and that his brother, John, had warned that HSE just weeks previously that it was only “a matter of time before he got killed or ended up killing someone else through no fault of his own”

While the jury at the inquest recorded an open verdict, and said Mr Roan died as a result of a road traffic accident, they also recommended that there be "a serious review of the criteria in the medical supervision of mentally ill patients.”

Maeve Kelly is hoping that her presentation in Brussels tomorrow will result in “a complete sea change” in the issuing of driving licences to motorists who are suffering from “profound and on-going severe mental health issues.”