Dear all,
I would like to say how encouraged I am by the response to our campaign Test Before Driving at thepetitionsite.com. Reading the responses on this forum makes me realise that we can make it a law.
After the tragic death of my brother James, my family have suffered enormous grief but have also learned a lot about diabetes and how difficult it is to live with. That's why our campaign is about protecting all and not presecuting the few. We want to work with diabetics and to raise awareness.
We honestly feel that allthough Michael Dodd was rightly convicted of death by dangerous driving that he was let down by the DVLA, the medical authorities and the law. If he had known it was his legal obligation to test before driving as opposed to being advised to do so then he may well not be serving a three year prison and a five year driving ban at 21 years of age; whilst a 41 year old father, husband, son and brother would still be with us.
Below our campaign details is how this tragedy has impacted my life. Please help us with our campaign Test Before Driving at thepetitionsite.com
Many thanks
Adam
"I have dreamed twice about my brother James since he was traumatically wrenched from my life. On the second occasion it was the James I like to recall and remember. He was alive surrounded by family and friends. The effervescent, laugh-inducing entertainer, who was the archetypal larger than life character. The James I last saw alive cooking for us all on the barbecue in the garden of the lovely home he and Mel had created.
The first occasion was harrowing. He is dead. He is dead and I am sat in the car next to him. His lifeless yet unblemished body sat upright and motionless at the wheel of his car. My pleas for him to answer me are pointless as I know he was gone. His eyes are closed as if asleep whilst mine frantically search through the windscreen of his car for the face of the driver of the van which has killed him.
I have now seen the face I was searching for that dreadful night through a different glass- the one of a dock in a criminal court. Seeing Michael Dodd’s face has done nothing to help soothe the emotional devastation I have experienced since his actions took my only living brother from me.
The dreams are grief’s transient side-kick. The reality is far worse. It’s like having an unwanted Siamese twin of a shadow casting its darkness around me, tapping me on the shoulder reminding me of a huge emptiness in my life.
I no longer have a handsome giant of a brother to love nor for him to love me. No longer is the hulking six foot three guy who threw himself into work and projects, who adored his wife and son James, who will be remembered by my daughter for his lasagne and by my son for taking him to see Liverpool play Lazio. James was my friend and we rediscovered the closeness of our childhood and teens in the recent years before he was killed. We had a language all of our own, expressions of our own and 41 years all of our own. In that time we shared a bedroom, schools, football teams, music, clothes, friends and spectacularly fun times, arguments, sibling rivalry, despair and elation but most of all we always knew we were special to each other.
We created memories as two little boys and as two adults we shared those with our children. Now he has gone so has the essence of the special atmosphere created when we were together. Our language is gone, our jokes have gone, our spark has gone and the most hurtful aspect is that although the memories will always remain there is nothing I can ever do to create more special moments with him. The accident took James’s future and the one I had with him too.
I will always remember my wife Denise tearfully waiting to deliver the news of James’s death to me as soon as I came off air at 10pm on Thursday November12th 2009. As soon as she explained that he had been killed in a road accident, I knew he was not coming back. I knew he was gone forever, I knew it was no macabre mistake. Never once have I felt he would reappear. Such is the finality of death. Sadly there is no finality from the repercussions of the tragedy surrounding James’s passing.
In the time since James was killed I have suffered from anxiety, mood swings, guilt, erratic behaviour, an inability to feel joy, and generally de-sensitised. I am less tolerant of what I believe to be meaningless things, especially at work. This has been a burden carried willingly by my magnificent wife and our children who along with my sister |Jane, my mother, wider family and friends have all helped me carry on. I have a strong work ethic, just like James had, and I am proud that I have done much in the months since his passing to forge ahead with life and my career when I know many would have imploded. I am scarred for life but I am not beaten nor am I bowed for there is much to do.
Primarily the impact with my brother’s death has had on me is devastating loss and grief. But it also demands that I see justice done in the name of James. His life was expunged and with it many hopes and aspirations of others. The events surrounding his accident have given me a different perspective on life and have led me to understand more about the legal system and diabetes and how both processes affect people.
Michael Dodd had the ability to prevent me from having to write this statement. He had it within him to not have me stand next to my brother’s coffin in the packed church where he was christened and married and read out a heart wrenching eulogy to James. He had a choice to look after himself by taking his medication. He gambled by taking the wheel of a van and I along with many others lost. The price was my brother’s life, a wife without a husband, a son without a father, future children without a father, a mother, brother and sisters without their baby boy and nephews and nieces without Uncle James.
Since his passing I remember James in a variety of ways- with fondness for how great he could make me feel and with fury at some of the things he did in an eventful life. I ached angrily in court knowing he should be with us. I am filled with pride when I recall how he was turning his life around and I become tearful on other occasions like when I hear his bright voicemail message saying.
“Hi you’re through to James Pope, I can’t take your call at the moment but please leave your name and number and I will get back to you very shortly”
But he will never come back to me now."
