FORMER KERRY ALL-IRELAND winner, Sean O\u2019Leary, whose inter-county career was wiped out by a dangerous driver, blasted youths sharing dangerous driving exploits on social media.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Leary was seriously injured when Michael Harty (22) from Lisheen Park, Patrickswell, Co Limerick, ploughed into him and his girlfriend as they drove home from a football match five years ago.<\/p>\n
Harty struck their car as he overtook traffic on a bend on the wrong side of the road, near Abbeyfeale, Co Kerry, on 10 July 2021.<\/p>\n
Harty, who had a previous conviction for speeding, pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm, but was found guilty by a jury and jailed for four years with the final year suspended in 2024.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Leary\u2019s girlfriend, Emma O\u2019Connor, who was driving herself and O\u2019Leary, suffered a cruciate leg injury and shock. The All-Ireland minor football winner was left in a wheelchair for four months, requiring multiple surgeries, and he still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Leary warned Transition Year secondary school students at a road safety roadshow, sponsored by motor insurance firm Axa, held at the University of Limerick today: \u201cNobody is immune from this happening to them and the consequences can be devastating for dangerous actions.\u201d<\/p>\n
So far this year 140 people have been killed in road collisions, compared with 128 road deaths last year, and Friday\u2019s roadshow heard that young male drivers were more likely to be involved.<\/p>\n
Speaking afterwards, O\u2019Leary (27) said: \u201cA lot of it is people between the ages of 16 and 25, so its really important to get the message across that you are not just playing with your own life, you are playing with the lives of other people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Social media giant TikTok said Thursday that it had identified 1,600 videos in Ireland showing highly risky driving, vehicle theft, or related behaviours, since five teenagers died on 16 August, when they drove a car the wrong way down the M9 motorway, ploughing head-on into a car carrying an innocent family of four, and seriously injuring them.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Leary said the recent social media trend, whereby youths drive dangerously on roads and share their exploits online, \u201cangers\u201d him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely ridiculous, and its terrifying, it\u2019s genuinely terrifying. It really angers me, and it has devastating effects,\u201d said O\u2019Leary.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo think people are doing this, is absolutely shocking, and I think penalties need to be increased and people need to face consequences for their actions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know what it is like for me and my family and for [my girlfriend] Emma and her family and all our friends \u2013 they have lived the trauma with me \u2013 they saw when I was in a wheelchair,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Leary warned people engaging in risky driving that they are \u201cplaying with fire\u201d and risking not only their own lives, but the lives of others.<\/p>\n
The talented sportsman sustained an open fracture to his right femur in the collision, \u201cso my right femur came out through my leg\u201d, a fractured left femur, \u201ca fracture to my right tibia fibula\u201d, a fractured sternum, and long-term concussion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had 120cms of titanium rods inserted into both my legs, I had eight blood transfusions in intensive care,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd once I actually got out of the wheelchair, one of my legs had shortened an inch, so I had to get an inch of bone removed from my other femur to level me up again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat kick-started a horrific journey of rehabilitation both physically and psychologically, which was extremely tough, but thankfully I have made a full recovery through sheer determination.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Leary said that, although losing his inter-county career was \u201ctough to take\u201d, he realises he is \u201cextremely lucky\u201d to be alive.<\/p>\n
He offered: \u201cI feel like I have a duty and a mission to educate others, because I am very fortunate to have lived through a very severe car crash and come out the other side of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are not that many people who can actually tell these stories because they don\u2019t make it to hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
While speaking publicly about his experience has \u201cnot been easy\u201d, he would \u201crather speak about it, and share it, to help other people, rather than let it eat me up inside\u201d.<\/p>\n
Assistant Garda Commissioner, Roads Policing, Denis Ferris, who also attended the road safety event, said \u201ceducation\u201d was \u201ccritical\u201d for ensuring young people are \u201caware\u201d of the dangers of driving, before they even apply for their driving licence.<\/p>\n
Ferris said that providing continued \u201ctraining, support and welfare\u201d for garda\u00ed, in respect of their emergency response to road collisions, and how they personally deal with the after-effects, was also a key priority for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is sometimes forgotten, but our members have to live with the impact and effects of what they see,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORMER KERRY ALL-IRELAND winner, Sean O\u2019Leary, whose inter-county career was wiped out by a dangerous driver, blasted youths…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[89737,61,60,7727,43,11318,270072],"class_list":["post-635939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-dangerous-driving","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kerry","tag-news","tag-road-safety","tag-sean-o"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}