Morning Live struck a raw nerve this week when Gethin Jones and Kym Marsh ran a film that every driver in Britain probably needs to watch before picking up their keys. Gethin had already hinted at its impact on his Instagram with the quiet plea to viewers “I wish we could broadcast this film every day” and judging by the silence in the studio once it finished you could see why, reported Wales Online.
The short documentary fronted by former detective Rebecca Mason tackled mobile phone distraction behind the wheel and the recklessness that ruins families in an instant. Mason summed it up in one blunt word “relentless” as she followed real-life investigators trying to catch motorists scrolling and tapping when they should be watching the road.
Viewers were introduced to the heartbreak of Steph Cairns and Andy O’Dell whose 14-year-old son Joe Cairns died on the M58 back in January 2019. Steph’s voice cracked onscreen as she remembered the ordinary start to that school day. Joe who lived with autism hopped on the usual minibus but at 9.30 Steph’s phone flashed with a call from the school. “Hi Steph, I’m just letting you know that Joe’s van hasn’t arrived in school”. Andy tried to stay calm telling her “let’s just wait to see what happens. It could be roadworks, it could be anything”.
News soon filtered through that emergency crews were dealing with a crash on Joe’s route. Steph rang another parent whose child was on the bus and heard the awful words “She told me that her son was at the hospital.” Andy began phoning hospitals himself but “got no answers, nothing”. Six agonising hours later a police officer knocked on their door. “He went, ‘I’m really sorry, he’s died’. And that was it,” Steph recalled, the memory still raw. “I was screaming and screaming… I could hear somebody screaming and it was me.”
Steph insisted on seeing Joe. “I took a deep breath and I walked in. And he was just lying there… I remember kissing him and I remember I didn’t want to leave him, I just wanted to stay with him.” Joe and support worker Anne Kerr lost their lives because lorry driver James Majury was glued to his phone. Court evidence showed he had been sending texts, making calls, flicking through sports apps, even opening a game and checking Facebook on his journey. He spotted the minibus barely half a second before crashing into it at 50 mph. Majury was later jailed for eight years and ten months, reported by BBC News.
Steph looked straight into the camera during Morning Live and delivered the message no parent should have to utter. “Our boy did not get to grow up because somebody used their phone. Let’s stand up and say, this is not okay.” Andy admitted he still wonders every day how Joe would look or sound as a young man. “We’ve lost our little boy,” he said quietly.
Rebecca Mason’s report also highlighted how Essex and Greater Manchester Police are using undercover lorries to film drivers from a high vantage point. Officers in unmarked cabs pull alongside unsuspecting motorists and record crystal-clear footage of phones in hands before radioing patrol cars up ahead. It is a tactic borrowed from National Highways and appears to be catching plenty of offenders in the act.
Back in the studio Gethin summed up the mood. “Absolute silence in the studio as we were watching that. I wish we could show that film everyday because what that film shows is that it’s just not worth it. It’s never worth using your phone behind the wheel.” For anyone still tempted to glance at a screen while driving Joe’s story is a devastating reminder that a split second of selfishness can shatter lives forever.
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