Families Bereaved Through Car Crime

Jon Mc Donald at the time was only 23 when he was left to die on a roadside by so-called "joy riders", Jon, was struck by a "£50 run-around car" which had no tax, vehicle test certificate or insurance, on the Suffolk Road, in April, 2000. The driver of the car failed to stop and failed to report the accident For two or three hours, his 23 year-old victim, lay undiscovered on the verge of the road with his life ebbing away. Jon died, because of the injuries he sustained, and died on the way to hospital after a passing taxi driver raised the alarm, His family is struggling to come to terms with their loss, but they will always ponder the thought that, had Jon received immediate medical attention, he might still be alive. "Jon lay there for two - three hours, unconscious but alive, it was two or three hours that he was deprived of medical attention, which could have made all the difference, what makes us really angry is the fact that the driver of the hit and run car had a mobile phone and didn't use it  to call  for an ambulance, when Police discovered the car, ( on which the driver's door was kept closed with string), abandoned in Rossnareen, there was an active mobile phone inside".

AMBULANCE

"It was proved that these "death drivers" saw Jon, struck him and left him to die. No one will ever know why, but had they called an ambulance straight away Jon might be alive today and his three children would not have been left without a loving father. Marie, Jon's mother, said, "The local news and Teletext was reporting that a man had died after being found seriously injured, on the Suffolk Road (not far from Marie's home). As soon as I heard that, I started  panicking because I was told by jons wife that he hadn't come home, I rang all the hospitals looking for him and deep down I hoped that is wasn’t Jon who had been killed but the description they gave out fitted Jon perfectly, even the description of the clothes he was wearing. by the time the police arrived, I already knew Jon was dead. Jon was a barber by trade and he had been out celebrating a new job  with his cousins, and was knocked down on his way home, his body was only found by chance as it was dark. Marie explained. "The taxi driver who found him had a fare on the Suffolk Road and had seen something lying on the  road side, he didn't know what it was when he passed, but something made him drive back for another look, what he saw hit him really hard. Jon was still breathing but in a very bad state.  We learnt later  that he had been struck from behind with the force of the impact spinning him around and then he was also hit on the front of his person".

A juvenile, Neal Frances Blaney, was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment and banned from driving for 6 years, for causing the death of Jon Mc Donald, by dangerous driving. Josie (Jons wife) said" It was scary being left with a two- year-old son and one-year-old twins, Jon's death didn't really sink in until one of the twins, Sean Og, took meningitis; It was then that I needed Jon but he wasn't there, It was touch and go for a long time after I got Seán Óg to hospital as  he wasn't breathing well" .Marie (Jons Mother added), " wee Seán Óg had a guardian angel watching over him."

As fate would have it, the baby was discharged from hospital on what would have been his father's 24th birthday. Josie said: "It really hit me then that Jon wasn't coming back and that I had to go on for the sake of the babies, I couldn't have got through it without the help of fbtcc support group.  "Even today we are still angry because Jon should still be here his death was so sudden and it came like a bolt out of the blue". Our family is also still in shock concerning the sentence that his killer received, Jon was left to die by a road side by a callous murderer, who received 18 months in prison and served less than half the sentence. Where is the justice in that?". Josie added: "Young Josh, knows that his daddy is in heaven, but sometimes he cries and asks when is he coming back from heaven and will he catch a bus home?". Things like that just break your heart. A proper sentence would have eased our suffering in some small way, but we were betrayed by the police  and the so called judicial system. That sentence was pathetic and it just added insult to injury.

Jon's love for Marie, his mother, was made clear days after his death, " we found a mother's day present after he was buried and It was given to Marie" 

"It was a  lovely poem about a mother and it broke our hearts to read it, we didn't get a chance to say good-bye but Jon left his mother with a final, loving message and that ment alot to our whole family.

Mc Donald family