Studley woman tells how car collision left her paralysed
SHEILA Vale’s life totally changed when she was left paralysed after being hit by a car while walking her dog in October 2019.
Sheila – from Studley – has appeared in a moving video telling how an ordinary walk with her dog ended with her being thrown over the bonnet and then the windscreen of a car and suffered horrific injuries which she then spent months recovering from.
As a result of those injuries Sheila had to learn to count again and how to feed herself and didn’t find out that she was paralysed until the following April.
The video was filmed last year and coincides with Warwickshire Road Safety Partnership’s memorial service to ‘Remember the lives lost and injured on Warwickshire’s roads’ at St Mary’s Church, Warwick, between 2.30pm and 4.30pm on Sunday 20th November 2022 – the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.
She describes in the video how she let go of the dog’s lead and it escaped injury while she ended up behind a telegraph pole. The dog returned to her side and the emergency services were called to the traumatic scene where Sheila says First Responders saved her life. She was eventually airlifted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.
“Pretty much everything got broken. So the day of the collision I had a lot taken from me,” Sheila says in the video and then conveys her message about keeping roads a safer place for all road users.
“It only takes a split second where you take your eyes off the road and we’ve lost concentration. Concentrate, focus on the road. The person who hit me took his eyes off the road for eight seconds and he changed my life forever and I’m sure it’s had an impact on his life too. Could you live with that?”
In Warwickshire in 2021, 15 (2019, 34) people lost their lives and 215 people (2019, 282) were seriously injured in road traffic collisions. Globally, road traffic crashes are a leading cause of death among young people, and the main cause of death among those aged 15 to 29 years. Source: Brake
Philip Seccombe, chair of Warwickshire Road Safety Partnership and Police and Crime Commissioner for Warwickshire said: “The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims on 20th November provides an opportunity to raise awareness of the magnitude and impact that road traffic collisions have on society. It is still a sad fact that far too many people are killed or suffer life-changing injuries on our roads each year.
“The service allows people from all backgrounds, faiths and beliefs who have been affected by a tragedy on our roads to come together and have a moment for reflection. It also allows the wider community of Warwickshire to show solidarity and support for those who have been bereaved.
“The event also acts as a reminder to us that all deaths and injuries on our roads can be prevented and that we all have a responsibility to use the highway network safely. Warwickshire Road Safety Partnership has set a target of halving all road casualties in the county by 2030 and, ultimately, we want to get to a position where no-one suffers the loss of a loved-one on our roads. That will need everyone to play their part and become safer road users and as a Partnership we are working hard to achieve this.”
St Mary’s Church will open from 2.30pm to provide the opportunity for anyone who would like to light a candle and take some time for silent reflection.
Open to all faiths, the service, led by Canon Peter Holliday, will start promptly at 3pm and last no longer than one hour.
For those unable to attend the service in person but would like to remember someone on the #WDOR2022 a Remembrance Service ‘toolkit’ is available on our website (https://warksroadsafety.org/warwickshireremembers/) with information and readings you can choose from to create your own service of remembrance at a time and place that suits you. The toolkit also includes text and images that could be used in a newsletter and to share on social media.
Please follow us online @WarwickshireRoadSafety (Facebook) @WarksRoadSafety (Twitter) to find out about the work we are doing to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on our roads by 50% by 2030. You can also visit our website www.warksroadsafety.org The hashtag #WDoR2022 is being used worldwide to support the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims and if you search this on social media you will see a wide variety of posts including ours.
