Cornwall dad issues emotional plea for people not to drink drive
Steve Kimberley lost both his children and one of his best friends after they were struck by a drunk driver on the A38
Last updated 23rd Nov 2022
A dad from Cornwall - who lost both his young children and one of his best friends in a car crash on the A38 - has made an emotional appeal to people not to drink and drive.
Steve Kimberley’s eldest son Matthew, 12, and daughter Lucy, 10, died after a Range Rover driven by a drunk man careered into them as they drove home from a football match in Plymouth back in 1996.
Family friend Ben Jewell, 19, also died as a result of the crash, along with the driver of the Range Rover who was killed on impact.
Steve, who lives near Falmouth, is now in a wheelchair and remembers the moment very clearly: "At the end of the game the gates were opened, and we got back to the car and got on our way home. As we came round the bend to left, we were hit at high speed by a drink driver.
"Once you get hit like that, you have to try to take stock of what has just happened. There's this silence, which is probably only seconds, but seems to go on for a long time in slow motion and you're trying to assess what's happened to you."
Steve says he took Matthew and Lucy to the Plymouth Argyle v Chelsea pre-season friendly as a treat at the end of the school year.
Matthew died at the scene; Lucy died the next day. Steve said: "There's something really sobering about seeing your children covered in a white sheet, they're both in coffins and you're in a wheelchair. That's the last time I saw my children."
Ahead of the Christmas party season - and as the World Cup gets underway - Steve has recorded an emotional video for the Vision Zero South West Road Safety partnership recounting the crash, of which this year is the 25th anniversary.