Ron Richardson
July 9th, 2016, was a normal day for Clodagh White and her young family. Her 12-year-old daughter Meabh was going to a birthday party, and she strapped her two-year-old son Rian into his extended rear-facing car seat before they all went to drop Meabh off.
Unfortunately they never made it to the party, as en route, the car was involved in a serious collision, as Clodagh explains. “Every single part of my being shook with the impact. I instinctively threw my left arm out to hold back my 12-year-old daughter, who was a front seat passenger.”
Both Meabh and Clodagh suffered horrific injuries. “My little girl cracked the base of her skull, C1 vertabrae in her neck, multiple bleeds on the brain, contusion to one of her lungs and a fractured pelvic bone. I ensued injuries to my pelvis, cracked sacrum and fractured pubic bone. I spent one month in hospital on bed rest and physio work.”
Thankfully, Meabh is now back in school on a part-time basis and doing well, although still suffers from post-concussion syndrome. Clodagh is still in pain with her injuries and may be facing surgery in the next few months.
Miraculously, however, Rian escaped without injury. “It was nothing short of a miracle that he was physically virtually unharmed, not a scratch or bruise. He did start vomiting and was brought to UCHG for two nights observation and tests. His CT scan revealed no abnormalities.”
Clodagh credits one man with Rian’s escape from injury – Ron Richardson at the RSA who had guided Clodagh when fitting Rian’s carseat. “Only four days before my accident I contacted Ron and sent him a video link of one of the seats, which was clearly not installed correctly. Ron gave up his time after a working day to watch my video and explain to me in clear detail what I needed to do to remedy the situation. I immediately acted on his advice and both seats were rock solid as a result. In fact, the only two parts of my car that weren’t destroyed by the crash were my two carseats!
“Ron’s passion for and belief in child car seat safety exceeds the hours he works for at the RSA Check It Fits roadshows. He is an active member of a very popular and busy car seat forum on Facebook and is called on daily to offer advice and solutions to carseat dilemmas.
“Only for Ron and his advice I shudder to think of the consequences. Ron in my eyes is as equal a hero to any surgeon, medical consultant etc. He saved my little boy’s life and I’ll forever be indebted to him.”
