In 1997, just days before Christmas, a 14-year-old Dimity Clancey’s world would change forever when her sister and brother-in-law were killed in a car accident with a drunk driver.
“I heard the words ‘killed’ and ‘Dominique and Andrew’ and then I heard my mum just scream,” Clancey tells the Daily Telegraph.
Dominique Clancey, 27, and Andrew Donald, 26, had been married for just three weeks, and had both just become doctors, when their lives were tragically cut short –just four days before Christmas.
The couple were killed instantly after a man, four times the legal limit, drove his car onto the wrong side of the M4 and slammed into the couples hatchback.
“I jumped from my bed and stood at the top of the stairs. A police officer was standing in my family’s lounge room,” she adds. “I can still hear my mother’s screams and still see my father slowly drop his head.”
“Death visited my sister that night, at speed and soaked in alcohol.”
Clancey, now a wife and mother herself, says she and her family will never be the same. Over the years she says has come to accept that life can be cruel, but that the accident has taught her to be vigilant and aware of consequence, and urges people to be the same.
“One reckless decision on our roads can kill — does kill,” she says.
“From now until into the new year, police will implore drivers to take care on our roads. Listen to them, please. They are trying to save lives.”
“Every decision you make has a consequence, whether good or bad,” she adds. “If it saves one life, then it’s worth it.”
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