Mum of one of four boys who died in Llanfrothen crash tells her story to Westminster debate

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00:00Crystal's story. My kind-hearted son Harvey had just turned 17 in November

00:062023. A couple of weeks later he asked me if he could go to Wales with two

00:10friends he had known since school. It was to be his first weekend away with

00:14friends and as a parent I felt it was time to give him a little freedom. He and

00:18his friends planned to stay at one of their granddad's houses and when I heard

00:21this I thought what harm can come to him? It was a trusted friend's family in a

00:25safe place. It felt like the right thing to do to let him experience a little bit

00:30more independence. At this age you need to give them a little freedom right? So I

00:34agreed. After seeing a video of one of the parents confirming where they were

00:38staying I had no reason to doubt Harvey's story about who was driving. We had

00:42always known Harvey's friends. Our home was often where the boys would gather to

00:46play music for many years. As far as we knew he had no friends who had even

00:50passed their driving tests so we felt comfortable with the situation. Harvey

00:55seemed so grown up now, mature and responsible. I thought to myself he was

00:59ready for this. Before he left Harvey sat in his bedroom playing Ring of Fire on

01:04his guitar knowing I loved this song. I told him how proud I was of him, how

01:09talented he was. I gave him a hug telling him I loved him. He jokingly told me to

01:15stop being weird and then said he loved me too and not long after that he left.

01:20It was the last time I would ever see my beautiful son. The following morning

01:27Harvey sent me a picture message of the view from the cottage and everything

01:30seemed fine. However what I didn't know at the time was that the boys had

01:33decided to go on a camping trip. It later transpired that another 18 year old boy

01:37Harvey had recently met at college, a newly qualified driver, had also gone and

01:42was actually the one driving. Just over an hour later after sending me the text

01:46my son and his three friends were dead. After some of my texts didn't go through

01:53I started to get concerned. The next thing I knew we were frantically driving

01:57around Snowdonia having discovered they were missing. Our worry soon turned to

02:01panic and we made our way to Bangor police station. The feeling of being told

02:05they had found four bodies and they believed one to be my son is

02:09indescribable. The pain of that moment felt as much physical as it did mental.

02:14It was as if my world had stopped right there in that instant. A suffocating

02:20numbness washed over me and I felt I was being ripped apart from the inside. Time

02:24felt like it froze like everything around me became a blur. It was as though

02:28the world was no longer a place I wanted to be. The life I had known filled with

02:33my son's laughter, his music, his dreams was ripped away in an instance. It is an

02:39unbearable shock and pain. I wanted to die myself just to escape the nightmare

02:44I was now living. The thought of facing a world without my son, without his

02:50presence was too much to bear. I don't remember much after this moment. My

02:54partner said I was howling saying on repeat it couldn't be Harvey. I knew in

02:57that instant I would only exist for the rest of my days. It later emerged that

03:04the young driver had lost control of the car on a bend of a rural road. The

03:08vehicle ended up in a water-filled ditch and despite their attempts to

03:11escape all four boys tragically drowned. The news of their deaths was

03:16overwhelming. To know that Harvey and his friends had suffered such a tragic end,

03:21unable to survive and escape the car, is a pain I cannot put into words. The grief

03:27I feel in the wake of this loss is all-consuming. The loss of my son has

03:31left a permanent aching void in my life. It's something that unless you are

03:35unfortunate enough to ever experience yourself, you will never come close to

03:40understanding pain. In the months following Harvey's passing I could

03:44barely function, only leaving my bed to attend the funeral. The circumstances

03:48surrounding his trip have weighed heavily on me. I would never have allowed

03:51him to go if I had known the full details. A friend informed me that in

03:55some countries newly qualified drivers are not allowed to take peer aid

03:59passengers for a set period and are required to gain experience on rural

04:02roads first. It seemed like common sense to me and I thought it was a no-brainer.

04:06After weeks of research I began my campaign to make driving safer for young

04:11drivers, advocating for change in the light of the shocking statistic that 76%

04:16of fatalities in crashes involving young drivers are not the driver themselves.

04:21Anyone could be affected. I've had to publicly share my grief, putting it on

04:28display for the media in order to leverage their coverage and raise

04:32awareness about the horrifying statistics around young drivers' death

04:35crashes. All of this while I still haven't had the time or space to process my own pain.

04:42In October 2024 at the inquest we learned that the boys had all been

04:46practically unharmed by the crash. They were conscious and tried to escape the

04:50car. Thanks to the manual back windows Harvey was able to wind his window down.

04:54However, due to the lack of a simple safety hammer, something that could have

04:59shattered the glass in seconds and cut through seat belts, precious time was

05:03lost. The thought of Harvey and the boys' final moments will haunt me for the rest

05:08of my life. I strongly believe that such a safety tool should be made mandatory

05:12in all cars. While it's difficult to determine how many lives such devices

05:16could save in the long run, in cases like Harvey's it would have made the

05:20difference between life and death. Although ultimately I feel it's a

05:25reactive solution to a more deep-rooted problem, if my son wasn't able to get in

05:29the car due to safety measures to protect newly qualified drivers and

05:32their passengers, he would not need the hammer as the crash would not have

05:36taken place. My campaign is not about punishing young people but about

05:40protecting them. Implementing these safety measures would help safeguard

05:44their lives by addressing the risks associated with inexperience and

05:48impulsivity, allowing them to enjoy their freedom without facing unnecessary

05:52danger. During the course of the inquest the evidence revealed matters giving

05:57rise to concern, which the coroner published stating that he felt there is

06:00a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken where younger

06:04people are carried in motor vehicles driven by newly qualified and or young

06:09drivers and that preventative action should be taken. After nearly a year of

06:14campaigning I should have felt relief when the coroner issued this preventing

06:17future deaths report but sadly as part of the Forget Me Not Families United

06:22group I know that similar recommendations have been made in the

06:25past with no real change. Unfortunately there will never be a victory for

06:30families like ours because our children are gone forever. If people truly

06:36understand the depth of our pain along with the level of commitment we parents

06:40put into researching the overwhelming evidence we might be taken more

06:43seriously in our fight for change. I hope this debate forces everyone to

06:48confront the scale of the problem. Every day without action means more families

06:52torn apart, more lives lost. Protecting young drivers, their passengers and other

06:58road users should never be a matter of political division, it's a moral issue.

07:02The evidence is clear, young people's brains are still developing making them

07:06more prone to risky decisions behind the wheel. Protecting young drivers isn't

07:11just about statistics, it's about lives lost.

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