Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2007 | Page 27

INTERVIEW

life

PC Clive
Richardson Traffic
Officer comments:

Photo: Wendy's much missed son Martin
other people. It churns it all up again. You
think ‘I know what they’re going through
and I can’t make it better for them.’”
She rides the agony of those words with
admirable serenity. What she can’t make
better for others are the changes to family
life. Wendy says she doesn’t know what is
going on in the minds of her other two sons,
Ryan, now 18, and Kai, nearly 11. “I can’t
imagine what Ryan thinks or feels, guilt
for seeing it, for being there? Kai, when
asked recently who lives in his household,
said, ‘Daddy, Mummy, Ryan, me and
Martin.’ I said gently, ‘Not Martin now,’ but
he said, ‘But he does a bit, doesn’t he?’.”
“He was thrilled when he found a

step takes you through it all over again.”
The words are desolate, the face serene.
Clive talks of the burden Wendy carries
in attending the campaigns and bearing
her soul: but she denies it is a burden. “I’ll
carry on as long as I can. Sadly there’ll be
someone else who will step into my shoes
at some time. This is a part of my life that
will come to an end. It’s quite frightening.
You build relationships with the campaign
team. But I’m going to have to leave them.”
Then she voices what you can’t help
fearing for her. “I’m not absolutely sure
that I’ve accepted it. I’m waiting for it
to bite me on the backside. Because
I think I’ve been very good – but I’m

Being emotionally raw she is torn apart when she hears
of other accidents. ‘You feel the enormity of other people’s
losses. Even if you don’t know them you think ‘I know what
they’re going through and I can’t make it better for them'
little yellow pellet from Martin’s BB
gun, saying ‘Can I keep it?!’
Martin’s death has even had an affect
on Wendy’s grocery shopping. “My son
was a really good eater, he loved his
food. There are things I don’t buy now,
favourite foods of his I can’t bear to cook.”
All of his personal things are in two
cardboard boxes under the bed. “Not
much for an 18-year-old,” she says, with
a hard note in her voice for the first time.
Ryan couldn’t bear to see his brother’s
things, so she cleared them quickly. “But
I’ve told him they are there, should he
want to touch them, smell them, wear
them.” A pause. “You think you’ve dealt
with things, but there’s still that to go
through. That’ll be a tough one. Every

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not sure I’ve done all the grieving. This
campaign is my coping strategy.”
Wendy and Clive are adamant that
their work is not aimed solely at young
people. Clive quotes the police drivers
manual: “There is nothing urgent
enough to justify a collision.”
And Wendy’s message is to just think.
Wear your seatbelt, slow down – think of
the consequences. You are the person
behind that wheel, if you decide to drive
badly your family are the ones who suffer.
“Sometimes I look at Martin’s photograph
and I think, ‘I’m never going to put my
hand of that face again. I can’t believe
I’m not going to be able to do that.”

PC Clive Richardson
is passionate about
the Safe Drive Stay
Alive campaign.
Targeting high schools
and colleges, the
message is aimed
at the youth of the Island. But, as he
points out, it isn’t just young people
who drive badly. The Isle of Wight has a
high proportion of elderly people, who
tend to keep well under the speed limit.
“It is the stacking up of slow-moving
cars which causes impatience.”
PC Richardson points to a general
problem. “People drive too close,
too quickly, they corner too fast, they
overtake when it’s not safe. But it’s