Call for new laws on drivers with severe mental health problems

An Athlone woman who was seriously injured when a man crashed his car into her car has called for new laws surrounding access to driving licenses for people with severe mental health issues.

Maeve Kelly, who resides in Coosan, said she wanted to help ensure other people did not suffer in the same way as she and her daughter had.
“I'm asking the Government to implement new legislation to protect road users and also those with severe unresolved mental health issues.”
She says existing guidelines around the declaration of extreme and unresolved mental health conditions need to be backed by legislation.
Her call comes after an inquest in Galway heard on Monday of last week that a 40-year-old man died when he drove his car into Maeve Kelly's car just weeks after the HSE was warned he would kill or be killed.
Gerard Roan, formerly of Corlacken, Creggs, Roscommon, had a long history of “severe and enduring mental illness”.
The 40-year-old was in the care of Roscommon Mental Health Services at the time.
But his family say their warnings and pleas for help about him did not appear to have been heeded.
The inquest heard Mr Roan “turned his lights off” and swerved suddenly into oncoming traffic and collided head on with a car driven by Maeve Kelly, then of Ashbrook, Knockcroghery, around 11.20pm on March 20, 2016.
The 44-year-old and the teenage daughter with her say they saw his car “come straight for us” and that he was “following” them as they tried to avoid him.
They miraculously survived after Ms Kelly took evasive action seconds before the crash on the N61 Roscommon to Athlone road at Carramore, about 2km from Roscommon town.
They both sustained serious injuries and remain badly scarred to this day.
Mr Roan was pronounced dead shortly after the crash.
The jury recorded an open verdict, and said he died as a result of a road traffic accident. But they said: “We recommend there be a serious review of the criteria in the medical supervision of mentally ill patients.”
In her statement to the inquest, Mr Roan’s sister Stella said that her other brother John had warned the HSE weeks previously “it was only a matter of time before he got killed or ended up killing someone else through no fault of his own”.
John had even asked his brother’s care team, on February 26, if he could put this warning in writing and if so, would they acknowledge it “if something was to happen later on down the line”.
Stella also said: “When Gerry was without treatment and disengaged from services, he had a history of being very unwell.
“I would go so far as to say he did not have the capacity to make rational and logical decisions regarding his life decisions.
“It is my firm belief he was totally not in touch with reality on the night of March 20, 2016 when he was driving his car and collided with an oncoming vehicle.”
As a result of the crash, Maeve Kelly suffered a broken neck, a fractured back, broken ribs, a shattered femur and tibia, a fractured left knee and a traumatic brain injury.
Her daughter suffered contusions on both legs and a shattered arm.
Maeve now wants severe mental health issues to be treated like vision and hearing problems when it comes to assessing a driver’s eligibility to drive.
And she wants people with severe mental problems to have their license eligibility to be assessed at frequent intervals.

Inquest report, courtesy of Irish Examiner.