Dromore family’s painful journey after drink-driving fatality

FOR years, Paddy and Bridie Hughes kept their grief largely hidden from their other children following the death of their son, Kevan, in a road traffic collision in 2011.

It is only in recent weeks, as the family began clearing their parents’ home, that the true extent of how his passing impacted them has become clear.

Little details have emerged, showing the special ways they remembered their beloved 33-year-old son.

Kevan Hughes died as a result of a collision with a drink-driver in October 2011. He was travelling home from work on the Dooish Road near Drumquin when the collision occurred.

The driver of the other vehicle received an 18-month prison sentence.

Thirteen years later, Kevan’s sister, Mary, has issued an emotional plea for people to “stop and think” before getting behind the wheel if they’ve consumed alcohol or drugs..

Her appeal comes as new figures show that the Mid-Ulster and Fermanagh and Omagh District Council areas have the highest rates of people killed and injured as a result of fatal and serious road traffic collisions caused by drink driving.

“Both our parents have died in the past 18 months, and they were never the same after Kevan was killed. It broke their hearts. It has affected our family for the last 13 years, and it never goes away,” Mary said.

“A day never goes by where you don’t think about it and relive in your mind the night that it happened. It seems like yesterday.”

Mary’s father died just two months ago, and the family have made some poignant discoveries since.

“We have been cleaning our homeplace in recent weeks,” she said.

“My mother had a plastic bag containing all the newspaper cuttings relating to Kevan’s death, and that just shows the impact it had on her.

“We also discovered things she’d written down about how tough it was for them.”

Mary continued, “The collision happened not far from my own home, and I could tell you what happened minute by minute that evening. It never goes away. Then, when it happens to someone else, it brings it all back again – you realise that another family has been affected by the same thing, and it never leaves you, to be honest.

“There’s the sleepless nights and you wake up wondering what Kevan would be like now if he’d lived… what he’s missed out on, his family and his nieces and nephews. It really is cruel and people just don’t seem to understand the legacy of something like that.”

Figures on deaths and casualties caused by drink-driving from 2018 to 2022 show that Mid-Ulster has the highest rate of deaths or serious injuries per 100,000 population, with Fermanagh and Omagh following closely.

During this five-year period, three people have been killed, and there have been 27 casualties due to 21 collisions involving a drink-driver in the Fermanagh and Omagh area.

Mary Hughes believes that PSNI officers need to be more visible on the roads.

“My parents should never have had to bury their own child. In the years after Kevan’s death, they were trying to protect us. But we were also hiding our own grief to look after them and make sure that they were alright,” she added.

“I see many campaigns to try and stop drink-driving, but it just doesn’t seem to hit home and some people think it’s OK to get into a car after drinking alcohol.

“It beggars belief.”

Expressing her dismay at the latest statistics, Mary concluded, “These numbers are very concerning and must be taken seriously.

“People need to stop and think about what they’re doing because so many lives can end up being ruined.”