Tragic son in TV message
Thursday, 14 January 2010
Elaine Millican talks about her experience of road accidents in the new DOE ad campaign.
A COLERAINE mother, who lost her son in a road accident last year, has taken part in a DOE ad campaign to warn others about taking care on the roads.
Elaine Millican was devastated when her 21 year-old son, Edward James Robert Millican (Jamie) - an apprentice plumber - was killed last March in a fatal car crash.
A learner driver with a provisional licence, Jamie was speeding along the Ballyhackett Lane area of Castlerock in March 2009 when the accident occurred.
‘Crashed Lives', launched by Environment Minister Edwin Poots, subsequently documents the stories of two mothers coping with the aftermath of such accidents.
There will be three separate ad screenings, including Elaine's, all of which are preceded by the current advertisement where a doctor addresses young drivers about meeting their mothers in the aftermath of an accident.
Also telling her story is June, whose 17 year-old son Kevin McChesnie, was involved in a single vehicle collision in August 2008. Kevin was the passenger in a car driven by a teenage drink driver and died in hospital from his injuries.
Regarding her participation in the ad, Elaine told The Chronicle: "I was a bit hesitant at first because it's a lot to take on board. If I can stop somebody else from going through the same thing though..."
In her advertisement, on TV from now until the end of February, Elaine talks about the last conversation she had with her son, just two hours before his death. Indeed, her parting words were: "See you later son, love you."
She also describes how she fell to her knees at the scene of the accident, clinging to parts of the wreckage. She explained her section of the ad focuses on the dangers of young people getting into a car, "to show there are different temptations" (eg joy-riding).
She said: "My son got into a car that he shouldn't have got into. He was supposed to be going that afternoon to buy a pet for his little sister. It was her birthday that day. That's where I got the news broken to me - at her birthday party at McDonald's."
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