"He Was More Than Just a Number"

EXCLUSIVE By Jordan Moates

"To me he was Dad, 30 minutes after he died he became number 22, it's gut wrenching that he doesn't have a name anymore"

County Down farmer Jim Boyd (54) lost his life in a crash just outside Dromore in April.

He was the 22nd person to be killed on Northern Ireland's roads this year.

His daughter Julie was speaking exclusively to Downtown Radio/Cool FM as part of our Take Care Get There Campaign.

Julie described the moment she found out her dad had died.

"I was told he was involved in a crash and had come home," she said.

"It was the worst 20 minutes of my life trying to figure out what was happening.

"Mum came home and said kids your dad hasn't made it. I ran to the window and cried and cried and cried."

"I can't describe the feeling you get when someone tells you that, it's pretty awful."

In the aftermath of hearing some of the most shocking news any family will ever hear the Boyd household had to start planning a funeral.

Julie said: "They were the longest days, no sleep, no appetite, I didn't eat for three days.

"You couldn't cry because you had cried yourself out. You were just an empty shell".

Jim's four children aged 25, 21, 19 and 15 made a speech at his funeral.

Julie says coming up with the words were difficult.

"It took me hours think what I was going to write," she said

"To put on a small piece of paper what your dad meant to you is impossible."

Jim owned one of the largest farms in the Dromore area and was very well known in the area.

Of his four children, Julie took a real interest in the farm, becoming a self confessed daddy's girl.

She told us the when she got the news it was heartbreaking.

"To be speaking to him just hours before and everything is fine and he is telling you how much he loves you," she said.

For him to be gone with no goodbye with no chance for me to tell him how much he meant to me is something I'm going to have to live with".

"I can't say goodbye now," she added."

Julie says she hopes her story will make drivers think twice before getting behind the wheel.