The lovely Lyn Booker rang us to invite us to the church service she holds every year for families that have lost a child what ever the circumstances in which they have died.

This service was very moving to hear mothers stand and read poems or to stand and talk about there child, this was very brave of them, the common thing with us all was the fact we where parent who are all suffering in our grief at the loss of our children.

We where all asked to place an angel with our child’s name on it on a lovely giant Christmas Tree, then to light a candle to remember each and everyone of them, what struck me this year was the fact there was so many angels and candles, each one a child, I got so upset because yet again we should not of been doing this in memory of John, the other parent also should not of been there too, their children did not deserve to die.

Thank you Lyn for doing this for us all, you are a brave and good person, you are trying to cope with your son Terry’s death but you are helping others as well, bless you for this, I only hope when I can cope a lot better in the future, I can be as strong as you and do something to help remember our son John, so that his death was not in vain.

Today we attended the Roadpeace Memorial Church Service at St James Church in Piccadilly London.

This service is held every year in remembrance of all road traffic victims that have been murdered, seriously injured in road collisions.

As we entered the church we where asked to write John’s full name and the date of his birth and death on a leaf and to place it with other victim’s names on a tray, the service began and half way through the service the names and dates of all the victim’s where read out , I John’s mother became so upset not only to hear John’s name but there was so many names it was so heartbreaking to think that ever name was a victim of one persons selfish act, there where so many people like Peter and I who where there for one reason only to remember there loved ones, thinking we should not be here our loved ones should be alive.

My only wish would be that the politicians who are suppose to represent the public could have been there, it would have been nice to of seen our Prime Minister there, or the leaders of the opposition of both parties attending, I know that the Transport Minister attended and spoke to us all, but we as a family that has lost such a kind, gentle and loving son feel that this government and all parties do not take these death seriously, they will not call these drivers murderers and so let them walk away and never be accountable for there actions. THANK YOU Roadpeace, without you all these lovely people would not have a voice they would all be the forgotten victims they would be for ever just shoved under the carpet and never be heard of again.

The whole of the service was very emotional and upsetting but this is something we all have to do because it is so very easy for people to forget about these victims but all the time their loved ones are alive they will never be forgotten, and all the time there is Roadpeace they will be remembered.

Lilly it was so nice to meet you that day, you just like us where at the service to remember a loved one, you didn’t say much about your husband to us both, but we could see that you too are heartbroken at his loss, all we can say to you is keep doing what you do for Roadpeace and maybe we will meet you again when we visit them in the future.

BBC radio London rang us today to ask us both to speak on there radio station live, this morning, they where doing a report in conjunction with BBC London about uninsured drivers, again we where asked about John’s death and the sentence that was given to the man that killed John, throughout the early morning people where asked to ring in with there views and opinions on uninsured drivers. During the day Tom Edwards report was aired on BBC London’s local news report and we couldn’t believe it when in his report a mini cab driver was stopped and found to have no insurance, this is a person that is ferrying people around every day for a living but he had no regard for their safety because if he had a collision and maybe killed his passengers or seriously injured them it would not of mattered to him because he was not insured. From what we both understand at this present time there are estimated to be 1 Million uninsured drivers out there all taking a gamble as to whether or not that they get caught, but also knowing if they murder a innocent person on our roads or seriously injure someone they will not be made accountable for this.

Today we where interviewed by Tom Edwards from the BBC, he was doing a report on uninsured drivers. Roadpeace had given our names to him as John had been killed by an uninsured driver, he ask us about John’s death, about the man that killed him and the sentence that was handed out to him. He also asked our opinion on what we thought the punishment should be for these driver who are uninsured and kill on our roads, Peter and I found doing this interview very hard but we know that if people like us don’t come forward then the public will never know the total devastation these deaths cause, and that these drivers are getting away with murdering innocent people every day.

Thank you Tom for listening to us both, and we are sorry we cannot remember the camera mans name but you both made us feel relaxed, because doing these interviews can be quiet nerve racking and we don’t always get over our point because of this.

Today we received the book that we where promised A Mother Speaks by the author Judd Batchelor.

Judd had spoken to us months earlier to ask us if we could write a happy memory of John and to let her have a picture of him, so that she could include him in her book. She also included three other sons in her book, Dorrie A McKie Jr 31/05/1979, Lee Ayhan Cini 01/02/83 and Tom L Easton, 25/09/83, young men that had all their lives in front of them, but one day they where in the wrong place at the wrong time, murdered by a person who found it so easy just to take their lives and ruin the lives of their family, close friends and their community.

I John’s mother read the book and sat and cried as I was reading it.

I couldn’t believe that Judd had put into word’s the feeling that I have been going through since John’s death, it was as if she had been in my mind listening to my thought’s, hearing my anger, asking question’s that no one could answer, the total bewilderment that I felt at the death of our son, and no one understanding that on the 23^rd October 2005 me and John’s father Peter had also died with him.

I would highly recommend this book to everyone, because society on the whole takes gun crime, knife crime and road death’s, as an everyday occurrence, they don’t seem to think that the people that have been murdered had a right to life, it seems that we as a society assume that because a knife, gun, or as in John’s case because he was riding a motorcycle, and because they where all young they most probably deserved it. But if these people where to know about the lives of these young people, they would understand that they where good, kind and loving young men who came from families that truly loved them, and that no matter how your child dies, being their mother you never get over their death, because you never think that you would be burying your child before you, but to lose a child through senseless violence at the hands of another person who murdered them without any feeling what so ever is so very hard to come to terms with.

 Judd all we can say is thank you for writing this book, and can only hope that people will read it and they change there feelings towards these terrible deaths and come forward to help families like us to change the laws of this country to stop these senseless murders, and to understand that mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and countless families and friends are affected for the rest of their life’s at the loss of someone so special.

We never got to see your play Judd but know that it would have been as powerful and moving as your book, this can only be a good thing too, because the people who come to see your performance will see the true affects of these deaths.

We had a phone call today from the Daily Express their reporter Jo Willy had been in touch with Roadpeace and asked them if she could talk to a family that had lost a love one to an uninsured driver. Jo wanted to know our views about the soft fines that are handed out to drivers that are uninsured and kill on our roads; she totally shocked me (John’s Mum) because she told me that four people a week are killed on our roads every week and the fines for these drivers are getting lower and lower.

It just proves that this government does not care about victims of road deaths, as far as we are both concerned these drivers are murdering innocent people every day and this government are letting them get away with murder. I understand that on Monday the 18^th August 08 new laws will come in to force where if you kill someone on the road and you are uninsured you could be sent to jail for two years, what an insult to the victims, their life is worth more than that, this government are so gutless they seem to be frightened to punish these drivers but do not think of the victims or the victims families.

In the borough where we live you can be fined £80.00 for dropping litter in the street, Marek Tomi the man who murdered John was fined 80.00 for Careless driving so this is telling us that our son’s life is worth the same as rubbish that is dropped on our streets. The article was printed in the Express on Saturday the 16^th August, again John’s picture appeared with an article about John’s death.

Thank you Roadpeace

And thank you Jo for getting in touch with us.

Without the media keeping the pressure up and highlighting these deaths this government will never learn.

Today we where contacted by a lady named Judd, we had spoken to her in the past, she had contacted Roadpeace and asked if she could speak to a family who had lost a loved one in a road collision.

She rang us and explained that she had written a play about knife crime and was in the process of writing a book on the same subject; she explained that she wanted to add twelve more victims of other crimes that resulted in their death to both the play and the book. She asked us to write one happy memory of John and also if we could send a picture of him, his date of birth and the day he fell asleep, which we did.

Judd told us that the book is now finished and that she was going to send all the families involved a copy. When she first made contact with us she also said that in November when the revised play is to run we would be invited to this. We look forward to receiving the book and going to see the play.

Thank you Judd for getting in touch with us both and thank you for including John and all the other victims of crime in both your book and play, this is a fitting tribute to them all and they all will be remembered and thought about.

Lyn Booker runs a group for bereaved parents in Woolwich this lovely lady keeps in touch with us both and rang us to ask us to come along today because the News of the World news paper wanted to run a story about the group.

They where there mainly for knife victims, because of the terrible murders that are happening at the moment. They interviewed every one at the meeting us included, we told them John's story, they said that they are always doing different reports in their paper and asked us for our phone number so that in the future they could contact us.

There where so many Mothers there that like us have lost a child or in some cases children it was very sad to sit and listen to their sad and painful stories, these children are a lost generation and yet again this government has failed us all they will not punish these murders what ever the circumstances, they do not understand that we as parents need justice for our loved ones, all I can say is Thank you Lyn for being so kind and for using the death of your son Terry in such a positive way.

The media also has been trying to make this government listen and we truly believe the more people who come forward and use them to let the public know the pain and grief we all suffer at the loss of our loved ones.

We can only hope that by the media highlighting these tragic death's this  government will surely start to do something to tip the scales of justice for the victim's of crime and punish the people that murder innocent victims.

We went today to Transport for London for a meeting with Christine Fitzgerald (Road Safety Officer, Jason Newton (LSCP Senior Communications Officer) from TFL and Amy Aeron Thomas from RoadPeace.

This meeting was to show us the leaflet that we had suggested a year ago that will be put into speeding fines to show speeding offenders what the consequences of speeding can do, the leaflet explains why speed cameras are needed and explains that cameras are placed where there have been collisions resulting in fatal and serious injuries, this again can only be a positive step in trying to educate offending drivers on the dangers of speeding.

At the meeting we were told of more changes that TFL are proposing for the future so we are slowly seeing improvements on road safety.

Today we went up to London for the RoadPeace Conference, this conference was attended by many speakers, they consisted of Ken Livingston Mayor of London, a Coroner,  a Magistrate, a member from the Motor Insurers Bureau, the Crown Prosecution Service, a Family Liaison Policy Coordinator, Head of Sentencing Guidelines Secretariat  and Jenny Jones Road Safety Ambassador.

The day consisted of all these speakers explaining the new changes that are being brought In regarding Road Safety and Improving the Response to road Death and Injury.

We were both very interested in the CPS’s new policy on Prosecuting Cases of Bad driving and the changes that are being made will help victim’s families to better understand how and why prosecutors make their decisions in regards to charging a defendant, they show more respect and understanding when dealing with victims families.

Given the way we and other families were treated this is a positive move for the better, also the changes concerning the inquest where you have to deal with the Coroner are also changing, they too recognise that we the victims families also deserve respect and understanding because after all we are not the ones that caused the death of our loved ones but under the old system you were made to feel this.

We were invited to the Terry Booker Foundation Special Christmas Memorial Service for bereaved parents that have lost a child at St Andrews Church in Welling.

The service was made up of a few sermons and prayers, readings and poems and three hymns, and then Lyn Booker, the mother of Terry Booker read out all the names of the children that have been killed or murdered. As the names were read out the parents of that child were ask to put an angel with the name of that child on it to come up to the alter and place the angel on the Christmas tree, we were also ask to light a candle for all our children.

The ceremony was very emotional and sad because there were so many angels hanging from the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree we were told would be left all over Christmas, which we thought was a lovely gesture.

We would like to thank the Terry Booker Foundation and St Andrews Church for holding this service for all of us.

Again Time FM on their hourly news reports reported about Roadpeace and highlighted that 111 years ago the first road victim Bridget Driscoll died on this day, they also ran more of our interview that was broadcast on the 1^st August about John’s death.

We would like to thank our local news paper the Mercury who ran a story about John and Roadpeace August National Road Victims Month.

the reporter who interviewed us and ran the story in the Mercury. Again we got the message across to people that if you are killed on our roads you will not get justice, we will do everything we can to help Roadpeace and to make people aware of them because they are trying so very hard to help victims of road collisions and their families.

Once again we would like to thank Time FM our local radio station for broadcasting Roadpeace’s August National Road Victims Month.

August National Road Victims Month has been chosen to commemorate the deaths of two well known road death victims, the first being the 111^th anniversary of the death of Bridget Driscoll a mother and the first ever car victim at Crystal Palace on the 17^th August 1896 and the 10^th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, another mother, in a car crash in Paris on the 31^st August 1997, they are also holding different events throughout August to remember road victims.

Though out the day Time FM on their hourly news told their listeners about August being chosen to highlight road victims that are killed, seriously injured or injured on our roads. Time FM did an interview with John’s mum and used clips of this interview to highlight the injustice of a road death and to make people aware of Roadpeace and what they stand for.

We have been given the opportunity to give our opinion on the new law that is about to come out in regards to Unlicensed Drivers with BBC Radio Essex. They informed us that the new law was going to carry a two year prison sentence for causing death whilst unlicensed and were particularly interested in John’s case given that his murderer also had no licence, they ask our views on this new law and we told them that it was completely laughable that you could murder someone and only be given two years. This is a complete and utter insult to the victim and the victim’s families, as yet again this government is sending out the wrong message to motorist that another persons life is worth nothing.

We would like to thank Roadpeace for giving John’s story to BBC Radio Essex and we would also like thank BBC Radio Essex for talking to us about our son John. Without Roadpeace getting the message out to the media the victims of road collisions would be forgotten.

We phoned Christine today to find out how she was getting on with the leaflet that we suggested some time ago in conjunction with speeding fines, she told us that TFL decided not to put a leaflet in with the summons notice as offenders would probably not even look at any leaflets that were enclosed.

We were so pleased to be told by Christine that instead of a enclosed leaflet, she has been given the go ahead to incorporate an image on the back of an A4 sheet that is enclosed with the fine, this sheet has questions and answers that are most frequently ask by offenders. Christine has promised us a copy once it has gone to print.

Back in October 06 we had a meeting with Transport for London, at this meeting we were told that people often write to them complaining about receiving a fine from speed cameras, it was suggested by us that it would be a better idea instead of replying with a standard letter to include a leaflet with pictures of people that have been killed by speeding motorist and a brief summery why these cameras are needed.

We have received an email today from Christine Fitzgerald from Transport for London, she has told us that she is planning on working with the Met Police to introduce a leaflet highlighting the dangers and consequences of speeding on London's roads.  She has already spoken to the Officer responsible and will arrange a meeting after the 05 March to discuss how she can take this forward.

This is another positive move to making drivers understand the consequences of there bad driving.

We were contacted today by our local newspaper the News Shopper and spoke to a reporter named Jeremy Grimaldi, he asked us if it would be alright to do an interview with us about the effect John’s death has had on us both one year on, this interview will appear in the News Shopper on Wednesday 28^th February 07.

He also asked us what we would like to see happen regarding road deaths, we said to him that we would like to see these drivers who are responsible for these deaths to be given a maximum prison sentence of at leased ten years and not the suggested sentencing of a maximum five years as the new legislation require.

We also said that these cases of causing death on our roads should be heard in a Crown Court with a judge and a jury, and not a Magistrates Court where they have only limited powers regarding these cases.

We understand from Jeremy that he also going to place on the News Shopper web site a petition in support for RoadPeace in there campaign for justice for road deaths.

We would like to thank the News Shopper for covering our story and only hope it will have some impact and people will sign the petition.

Wednesday 14^th February 2007

Today on our local radio station Time FM, we heard a report that motorist on the Dartford Bridge and the Dartford Tunnel were doing speeds of 130 mph at night, they were being filmed we assume by friends doing these speeds and then they where being shown on the internet.

These speeds are two and a half times the speed limit for these roads and can only say what mindless morons these motorist are, they have no thought for their own safety but are also endangering other road users, this is the attitude of people that don’t care whether or not they seriously injure or kill other road users, that is why we believe in not only more speed cameras but more police officers out on patrol with the new technology that can identify these mindless drivers and in our opinion dangerous motorist.

These motorists know that they can get away with these speeds (as they have shown on the internet) and that just shows this government are not protecting us the innocent victims of these mindless, reckless drivers. As parents of a child that was murdered and then given no justice, we are totally baffled at the way time after time the issue of bad, mindless, careless driving is let go unpunished.

Today we sent letters off to our MP Mr Raynsford, to our local councillor Mr Sindhu, to Transport for London, Mr Chris Lines in respect to Speed Cameras and Traffic Light cameras; we explained to them that we are concerned about both these issues in our local area.

We have also asked Mr Raynsford to raise the question in the commons about why the new Road Safety Bill is taking so long to be put in place. We should not have to ask this as this government should be treating this issue as urgent, but as we have come to expect, this government will not and do not take serious injury and road deaths seriously, instead more victims and their families are left to suffer at the lack of justice for their loved ones.

At TFL we also wrote to a Ms Christine Fitzgerald about issues that we have raised in the past concerning TFL, we await replies from all of them in the near future.

We were visited on Tuesday morning by the road safety campaigner Julie Feleppa from Greenwich Council; we have only ever spoken to Julie on the phone so it was a very pleasant surprise when she turned up at our door.

She came to tell us that there was going to be a Road Safety Initiative for young Moped and Scooter riders from the borough of Greenwich which is to be held on the 14^th February 2007 at Archway Motor Project in Thamesmead, she told us that we have been invited and that if we would like to address the audience about our experience regarding John’s death.

We both feel that at this time we are unable to stand and address youngsters on these issues. We are still going to attend the meeting and afterwards have agreed to talk to some of these kids about the tragic consequences of driving dangerously on these bikes; we can only hope that projects such as these get through to these young lives before it’s too late.

.

Over the last year we have been supported by RoadPeace, this organisation has been a great support to both of us, without them we would never have known our rights regarding different aspects of the legal system in regards to John’s death.

They have constantly kept us updated with information by phone and leaflets and phone us just to see how we both are.

These lovely people are just like us, they have lost a precious person in their life and give their time and energy for free to fight for justice for road traffic victims, they campaign endlessly and sometimes we both wonder where they get the energy to fight on because this Government is not taking seriously road deaths, making RoadPeace’s task so very hard.

We would like to thank you all at RoadPeace and can only hope and pray that 2007 is the year that we will all see changes to laws on road deaths.

Today we had a visit from a Mr Panasar from Greenwich Council regarding traffic Control Measures in Herbert Road, Woolwich.

again, which we are going to do to try and get their support on these matters.

We were both having a cup of tea at 7am when the Time FM news came on, there was a report on there in regards to new legislation that the government are to bring in new laws regarding people that use Mobile Phones while driving also Red Traffic Light Jumpers and people who Tail Gate other drivers are to face a prison sentence if caught the report also mentioned that the government are considering the charge of man slaughter for causing death on the road.

In this news report John’s story was mentioned and we were so surprised, all through the day on the hour John’s case was repeated, we would like to thank Time FM for doing this as we are trying to get the message out to people that if you are killed on the road at this present time you will not get justice, so we look forward to this new government legislation and only hope it does not take too long to be put into action.

Also today John’s uncle Tony got in touch with Talk Sport Radio with John Gaunt today and gave a short telephone interview with him about John’s story, the show was recorded for one hour and the recording of the show is to be sent to the government so they could listen to the views of people who phoned in about the laws regarding road deaths.

He also got in touch with Time FM Essex to let them know that their sister station in Abbywood was running John’s story and they told him they were aware of this and would run the story themselves, so thank you Tony for doing this for us.