How one moment on the road cost Victorian mum Kerry Norton her husband and child

KERRY Norton regained consciousness to find her husband dead beside her. Her little girl was nowhere in sight. For hours she was trapped in the wreck of the family car on a country Victoria road, not knowing if she’d survive. This is her heartbreaking story.

IT took just one moment of distraction on a country Victorian road for Kerry Norton’s life to come crashing down around her.

More than two decades later, Ms Norton is still haunted by the memories of the 1997 accident that killed her four-year-old daughter and husband.

The family had planned to camp at Waratah Bay, 185km east of Melbourne in South Gippsland, on Remembrance Day but were forced to turn back after forgetting their tent.

It was on the trip home that Ms Norton’s husband, Rick, fell asleep at the wheel after working night shift the day before and ploughed head-on into a logging truck.

“My daughter (Shani) went and unfortunately fell out of the car and died instantly and my husband was crushed by the logs,” she said.

Kerry Norton lost her husband and four-year-old child in a car crash. Picture: Tim Carrafa

“I was knocked out and as I came to I realised my husband was dead beside me.

“I was trapped in the car for 2.5 hours … I was trying to look behind (for my daughter) but couldn’t see her which frightened me.

“I thought she might have survived … It wasn’t till I woke up in the hospital the next day that my parents told me they’d both passed away.

Ms Norton is speaking out today to support the Herald Sun and TAC campaign, Save Our Kids (see links below).

Shocking new statistics reveal more than 700 young Victorians have died on the state’s roads in the past decade.

The heartbreaking Transport Accident Commission data confirms road trauma is the leading cause of accidental death of children, teenagers and young adults.

Today the Herald Sun and Transport Accident Commission are calling for an end to the scourge behind hundreds of unnecessary young deaths.

Ms Norton said it was impossible to ever recover from losing your own child.

“It’s a lifetime sentence,” she said.

“Before I had the accident it wouldn’t have even crossed my mind that my child could die in a road fatality.

“A lot of people are still naive that it won’t happen to them … They don't realise how many children die on our roads.”

Now Ms Norton dedicates her life educating problem drivers and urging motorists to take care and look after their children.

“I still go past and see people who haven’t strapped their kids into car seats. It’s stupid,” she said.

“My message to drivers is to slow down, don’t drink and drive and don’t take drugs.

“To this day I still think about whether I should have been driving on that day instead.

“Look at your children. They’re given to you as a gift. Look after them on our roads.”

TAC SAVE OUR KIDS CAMPAIGN:

THE ACCIDENTAL KILLER OF KIDS, TEENS AND YOUNG ADULTS

NEW EDUCATION PROJECT TO KEEP YOUNG DRIVERS ALIVE

MODERN CAR SAFETY FEATURES THAT CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE

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