*Helga Himmelsbach at the location in Ballyvaughan where her husband Jerry O’Connor was killed on his motorbike. Photograph: John Mangan
OVER TWO YEARS on from the death of her husband, a North Clare widow has walked from Kilrush to Kinvara to highlight the lack of road safety in the area and has committed to continue to raise awareness until progress is made.
Helga Himmelsbach began to ‘make a move for road safety’ on September 7th in Kilrush and finished her walk in Kinvara on Saturday (September 13th).
As she walked, Helga wore an orange hi-vis with the words ‘Remember Jerry. Stop the carnage’. The endeavour was therapeutic in its own way, she admitted. , I haven’t been as physically active, I would go out everyday for a couple of hours but nothing to the preparation that I took for this, I had this at the back of my head for the summer, then these past few days of moving for a few hours every day the energy it brings, I thought I would be shattered by now but I’m energised, I know this won’t be the end of it”.
Her husband Jerry O’Connor died on July 27th 2023 when the motorbike he was travelling on was struck by a French tourist, on the N67 just outside Ballyvaughan.
For two years, Helga has lobbied and campaigned to make the roads of North Clare safer. “There are movements, there are shifts, they are incredibly slow,” she said of the progress to date.
Minister of State at the Department of Transport with responsibility for International and road transport, logistics, rail and ports, Seán Canney (IND) was unable to meet with Helga during her walk but she has been assured of a face to face meeting. “Through his office it was communicated that he brought some movement in and changes will be made, he didn’t give a timeline on when they will be made but as they work through the paper trail that changes will be made on the stretch from Ballyvaughan to Corkscrew Hill with signage and what have you”.
No date has been given for this meeting but it would be the first time that a Minister or Junior Minister has met with Helga. “I have wrote to others and have been turned down which I find very sad but that will not stop me to ask them again to come out and meet me”.
French motorist, Olivier Le Bozec pleaded guilty to the dangerous driving causing the death of Mr O’Connor and last November he walked free from court after Judge Francis Comerford imposed a suspended 17 month prison term on him.
Lisdoonvarna based Helga believes the judicial process around fatal road accidents needs to be reviewed. “There is no judicial process for the person who has lost his or her life which I cannot understand”.
She is more confident that safety on roads across the Burren and North Clare will be improved. “That is thanks to the media taking it up, without that support I would be nowhere, through all that support which has been going forward and people ringing me, there has been progress made but the progress is incredibly slow but we need to keep working at it, I don’t see this as my last awareness campaign”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, the owner of Burren Wellness Centre said the energy to drive this campaign over the past two years has stemmed from her pain. “The energy is pain. If somebody hits your big toe with a hammer you will jump, it is pain, it is trying to be with that pain and not push it away but acknowledge that this pain is there and it is there for a reason, I have to work with that reason in a constructive and energetic way, I am a yoga teacher, I believe in movement of energy which we express through movement and stillness, I see my campaign as just a practical yoga practice taken off the yoga mat and into everyday life, I want this to be peaceful, constructive and creative”.
Reflecting on her latest venture, Helga stated, “In most stretches I did not want to be joined by people, the way the roads are is not safe and I would not take responsibility for anybody getting injured, frightened or uncomfortable. The weather hasn’t been exactly helpful but there has been huge support, I couldn’t have done that without the practical support and being there collecting bikes and bringing bikes, cycling together and having back-up along the way knowing there is people I can always ring if I need help, the support has been huge, absolutely massive”.
