A grieving mother says her son would still be alive today if safety railings had been installed along a treacherous stretch of road just six months earlier.
Samantha Day knew instantly that something had happened to her son Declan 19 when she read a breaking report on Facebook about a car accident in the Victorian town of Walhalla in Gippsland that occurred 30 minutes earlier on June 19, 2022.
Declan had traveled 100 kilometers from his home town of Drouin to Mount St Gwinear with several of his companions to see the snow.
On the way home, the car he was traveling in veered off a notoriously dangerous stretch of Walhalla Road and It rolled down a cliff before coming to rest 30m below in a stream.
Declan died instantly. The other three occupants of the vehicle were rushed to Melbourne hospitals.
Nearly two years later, 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 at family birthdays, including her upcoming 21st birthday.
Declan Day, 19, died instantly when the car he was traveling in left the road near the Victorian town of Walhalla on June 19, 2022.
“I still feel like I’ve lost a part of myself,” she said. 7news.com.au.
“It’s completely destroyed us, but we’re trying to move on.”
Although he had a feeling something was wrong, it wasn’t until a knock on the door several hours later that he confirmed his worst fears.
‘As soon as my mom… opened the door, I saw them (the police) and I said ‘no’ and they said ‘yes.’
‘I just fell to the ground.
“I felt like my whole world had fallen apart.”
Mrs Day said the driver was not 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 occurred on the first bend in the gold mining town of Walhalla, where there were no guardrails.
The same curve was the scene of a similar accident in 2017 when a car left the road. Fortunately all the occupants survived.
Just a month after Declan’s death, another car left the road on the same bend but again without fatalities.
Coroner McGregor said in his report that it was “likely” that safety barriers “would have prevented the consequent rollover and prevented further serious injuries”.
Baw Baw Shire Mayor Michael Leaney first raised concerns about the road to VicRoads a decade earlier, in 2012.
The car fell 30 meters down a cliff, killing Declan instantly. Three other occupants were rushed to the hospital.
Only after Declan’s death were the railings finally installed.
Mrs Day regretted it was “too late” to save her son, but hopes no more lives are lost on this famous stretch.
He hopes the safety railings continue to be Declan’s legacy.
“It’s very frustrating because they weren’t speeding or anything like that and then, you know, after he died, they did,” Ms Day said.
“They said it couldn’t be done and then it was done.
“(Declan) has been taken from us and the reality is that people need to die for any change to occur.”
Declan was the eldest of Mr Day’s four children and said one of her little sisters hasn’t let the family sing Happy Birthday since they celebrated her 19th birthday.
Later this month, Declan, who was studying mental health online at university. He would have turned 21 years old.
Samantha Day (left) said her family was devastated by Declan’s (right) death and no longer sings Happy Birthday after doing so for the last time on the 19th.
‘He will never turn 21, never get married, have children, or anything like that. It’s just… it’s a horrible feeling,” Mrs. Day said.
‘He had a smile that could light up a room, he was kind and always looked out for people.
She plans to visit her son’s grave on his birthday, followed by a gathering at home attended by Declan’s friends.