*Helga Himmelsbach lays flowers at the spot where her husband Jerry O’Connor was killed. Photograph: John Mangan.
A LISDONVARNA woman who became a widow after a French tourist crashed into her beloved husband on his motorbike at the end of July has pledged to continue campaigning until road safety improvements are introduced in North Clare.
Jerry O’Connor (71) was pronounced dead at the scene on Thursday July 27th when the motorbike he was travelling on collided with a car on N67 in Ballyvaughan. The driver of the other vehicle, a French tourist Olivier Le Bozec has appeared before Ennis District Court charged with dangerous driving, Judge Alec Gabbett has remanded Mr Le Bozec on bail and adjourned the case to November 15th.
Under 100 people attended a demonstration on Thursday morning calling for changes to the road network infrastructure to limit the amount of accidents taking place in North Clare. Cllr Joe Garrihy (FG) and Cllr Shane Talty (FF) were the only political representatives to attend the gathering.
Both Jerry and his wife Helga Himmelsbach are the founders of the Burren Wellness Centre. “It is a week I had never thought would come, I can’t get it into my head, this is my way of trying to stay alive and channel my energy so that Jerry’s death would not have been in vain,” Helga said.
She explained, “I am not calling this a protest, I am calling this a coming together in the spirit of Jerry to highlight his senseless passing and to see if very simple constructive changes can be made so that nobody else will killed again locally on these roads”.
On the changes she wishes to see introduced, Helga outlined, “Definitely the speed limits need to be addressed, signage, speed bumps, one of the Gardaí said that every vehicle off the ferry from a European country where you drive on the other side of the road should have marks put on the car so that when they are in doubt they just have to look at the marks to see which side of the road they go on. If there was adequate signage and bumps on the road, maybe that driver would have been jolted into reality and realised where he was and could have made corrections”.
Indeed Jerry once told his wife that they were likely to become the victims of a crash in the Burren, such is the frequency of accidents in the locality. “Jerry said to me ‘Helga the day will come and we will meet a car on the wrong side of the road’, he always told me, ‘if there is a car either going up or going down that you feel comfortable then stay behind that car, at least then it won’t be you’, he didn’t have anyone in front of him, it was him. We had clients who got hit, it happens so often here”.
Living in Lisdoonvarna since 1989, it was faraway in Hawaii in the year of 2007 that Helga and Jerry first met in what she described as their “Irish eat pray love”. “I was actually in a head-on collision outside Kinvara, the driver had fallen asleep at the wheel and had ploughed into me, luckily I was able to bring my car to a full standstill but I still sustained very bad injuries, I work as a physical therapist which I couldn’t do for a year, I decided to let my place for other therapists and go travelling, amongst my travels I came to Hawaii where Jerry was working for another Irish man as a carpenter”.
While Jerry has been described as a keen motorcyclist, Helga said this is not accurate. “He was not a keen motorcyclist, absolutely not. We have one car which we share and are very proud of, we are very much aware of C2 emissions and the dangers of roads, Jerry had a small tiny Yamaha 125 bike which he used when the weather would allow during the summer if I had to use the car and he had to go somewhere. I’m still really keen on cycling, we had got our electric bikes and we loved them so much, for my first seven years here I didn’t have a driver’s licence or a car, I did everything with my then push bike, I was going back to that so that every journey we could do on an electric bike we would do, we have a client which we share in the village and often cycled down to him and back, it feels so good to leave the car at home, wherever we could we would use different transport. It was very rare like on that Thursday that Jerry would decide to go for a little spin but he wouldn’t be an avid motorcyclist”.
Roads leading to Ballyvaughan were closed on Thursday morning to facilitate the demonstration. “I know it is a working day in the busy season and early in the morning, it is not easy for people to make them but it is really great that people gathered, there are tens more that weren’t here today that were thinking about it and would have liked to be here. Everybody living in North Clare experiences the traffic non-regulations that we have to live with and knows it is unsustainable, they will support it because it is for the better of everybody, it is not against tourism, it is for tourism and every local person”.
Community support has been very visible for Helga, “The community has just been amazing, it has been rippling right through beyond the community, I know I don’t have to worry about being alone and what have you”.
Further events are planned, the next takes place again on Thursday August 10th at 10:30am across from the church in Ballyvaughan where musicians will be present as the cause continues to be highlighted. A public meeting is also to be held on Friday August 11th at 7:30pm.
Helga has pledged to continue to flag the matter and has confirmed she contacted the Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan (GP) expressing her concerns. The absence and failure of Senator Roisin Garvey (GP) to engage with her has been a source of disappointment for Helga. “I will do whatever it takes until we get recognition, I am not going to go away. The problem is not going to go away and my response is not going to go away because Jerry is gone away forever”.
