A grieving mum says that her son would be still been alive today had safety rails been installed along a treacherous stretch of road just six months earlier.
Samantha Day knew instantly something had happed to her son Declan 19 when she read a breaking news report on Facebook about a car accident in the Victorian Gippsland town of Walhalla that happened 30 minutes earlier on June 19 2022.
Declan had travelled 100km from his hometown of Drouin to Mount St Gwinear with several of his mates to see snow.
On the way home, the car he was travelling in slid off a notoriously dangerous stretch of Walhalla Road and rolled down a cliff before coming to stop a 30m below in a creek.
Declan was killed instantly. The three other occupants in the car were rushed to hospitals in Melbourne.
Almost two years on, Ms Day and her three daughters are still struggling with the tragedy so much that one of Declan’s sisters won’t allow ‘happy birthday’ to be sung on family birthdays, including his upcoming 21st.
Declan Day, 19, was killed instantly when the car he was in slid off the road near the Victorian town of Walhalla on June 19 2022
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‘I still feel like I’ve lost a piece of myself,’ she told 7news.com.au.
‘It’s absolutely destroyed us but we’re trying to keep on going.’
Although she had a gut feeling something was wrong, it wasn’t until a knock on the door several hours later confirmed her worst fears
‘As soon as my mum …. opened up the door, I saw them (the police) and I said ‘no’ and they said ‘yes’.
‘I just dropped to the ground.
‘I just felt like my whole world had fallen apart.’
Ms Day said the driver wasn’t speeding and did not have alcohol or other drugs in his system.
Coroner Simon McGregor found the road was wet at the time of the accident, which happened at the first bend out of the gold mining town of Walhalla, where there were no guard rails.
The same bend was the scene of a similar accident in 2017 when a car slid off the road. Fortunately all of the occupants survived.
Barely a month after Declan’s death, another car came off the road at the same bend but again without fatality.
Coroner McGregor said in his report it was ‘likely’ that safety guard barriers ‘would have prevented the ensuing rollover and prevented further serious injuries’.
Baw Baw Shire mayor Michael Leaney first expressed his concerns about the roadway to VicRoads a decade earlier in 2012.
The car plunged 30metres off a cliff, killing Declan instantly. Three other occupants were rushed to hospital
It was only after Declan’s death that the guard rails were finally installed.
Ms Day lamented this was ‘too late’ to save her son but hopes that no more lives will be lost along the notorious stretch.
She hopes that the safety rails will remain Declan’s legacy.
‘It’s very frustrating because they weren’t speeding or anything and then, you know, after he died, it got done,’ Ms Day said.
‘They said it couldn’t be done, and then it was done.
‘(Declan’s) been taken from us and the reality is it takes people dying for any change to happen.’
Declan was the oldest of Mr Day’s four children and she said one of his little sisters won’t let the family sing Happy Birthday since they celebrated his 19th.
Later this month Declan, who had studying mental health online at university. would have been turning 21.
Samantha Day (left) said her family has been shattered by the death of Declan (right) and no longer sing Happy Birthday after last doing so for his 19th
‘He (will) never have his 21st, he’ll never get married, have kids anything like that. It’s just … it’s a horrible feeling,’ Ms Day said.
‘He had a smile that could light up the room, he was kind and always looked after people.
She plans to visit her son’s grave on his birthday followed by a gathering at home attended by Declan’s friends.