>> Geoff's story
Nobody admits to being a bad driver. After all, if you have never had an accident, that means you must be a good driver. Right?
Wrong! Geoff's daughter Kirsty was killed by a 'friend' who probably thought he was a good driver too. He crashed his car, destroying not just her life, but that of her whole family. Her father Geoff remembers the day he had to identify his daughter's body. He still feels guilty that he wasn't there to save his daughter as she lay dying in her car.
>> Transcript
I past my driving test without any minors or without any problems with it, so yeah, I think I’m pretty good
I’ve never crashed or anything.
- You don’t exactly keep your eyes on the road all the time either!
Drivers that go too slow annoy me.
It’s safer to drive during the day but it is more fun to drive at night.
If I’ve got lads in the car then I try and show off.
And then there’s the ones that just drive too fast.
The best time to drive is at night.
It’s better to drive at night. You get more thrills out of your car. You can actually show your car off.
My dream car would probably be a Subaru Impreza.
It’s competition. Everyone is in competition with cars.
I think I show off with it.
A McLaren F1, I think that’s a pretty decent car. I love the way the doors move.
I think the speed limits are too low to be honest. You’ve got 20mph. You might as well run faster.
You’ve jumped a red light before as well.
Your car gives you your image. The better your car, the better you are going to look to everyone else.
My name is Geoffrey Paye and I am a salesman from Nottinghamshire.
My daughter was a rear seat passenger in a vehicle that suddenly became involved in a motor accident.
Sad day that tragically all three was killed through, really, no more no less than misuse of speed.
Kirsty was pronounced dead at 7.04pm on the 27th at the scene.
I knew nothing until it was 01.20 – 01.25 am on the 28th. The Police knock on the door. I get out of bed, open the curtains. There’s two police officers stood there, I can still see them now.
They sat me down in the lounge and told me that there had been a serious accident, that there was fatalities involved and they needed to confirm some identification marks for my daughter Kirsty.
Yeah, I confirmed the identification marks and there was something that I couldn’t confirm. And then I was given the news that unfortunately Kirsty was one of the fatalities.
I asked questions and they couldn’t answer because the Police that came to the door was Nottingham Police and my daughter died in Lincolnshire so Nottinghamshire Police was acting on behalf of…
I was given numbers to ring for 8 o’clock in the morning for the coroner’s office for formal identification purposes. I confirmed the time, I think it was 3 o’clock in the afternoon, to go to Boston to do the formal identification.
On the day, as I understand it, the driver, as I understand it, lost control of the vehicle and subsequently took a side impact on an oncoming vehicle.
The effect it has had on me is devastating. I have a fantastic wife, two children. You couldn’t wish for better children. And yet as an individual, I’m very lonely.
The day that Kirsty died, took part of me away.
I do know that the driver of the vehicle that was involved, he took very serious damage to his car and thankfully he got away with scratches and bruises. I do know that it has cost him his marriage. The pressure that it put on his relationship with his wife has actually cost him. And he is a victim in this.
During the last moments of Kirsty’s life, she would have been screaming. She would have been calling for me. One of the things that bugs me today is that I wasn’t there. I wasn’t there to help her.
All I would ask of people is to look at the potential consequences of driving inappropriately.
