A MUM has told of her trauma after her teenage daughter was fatally knocked down on a zebra crossing outside their home.
Schoolgirl Keely Morgan, 15, died at the scene in Cardiff, South Wales, after being struck by the speeding car.
Sian Morgan heard her daughter Keely crying over the phoneSupplied
WNSKeely was just 15 when she was fatally struck by a car[/caption]
WNSDriver Christopher West, 42, outside court[/caption]
Mum Sian says she still suffers with flashbacks and is even convinced she could hear her daughter crying down the phone.
She had been desperately trying to call Keely that evening after she failed to come home from a walk, when a police officer finally answered.
“I still swear to it now, I could hear Keely crying in the background,” the mum told The Sun. “I was saying to the officer ‘I can hear her crying so what has she done?’”
When the officer came round to the family home a short time later, Sian said she was told her daughter had already died.
“I just screamed, I felt so hot, I felt the adrenaline, I don’t know what it was, shock,” she said. “The heat that hit me, I was just in an absolute hell of a state, awful.”
It comes after dad Christopher West, 42, of Ely, was jailed for 16 months in July after admitting causing death by careless driving and death by driving without insurance.
His Vauxhall Astra’s black box – a device which records vehicle data before and during a crash – had been removed prior to the accident on May 1 2023, meaning his policy was also void.
The exact speed at which he was travelling when he struck Keely on Heoi Trelai was therefore unclear, but estimated at between 32mph and 43mph in a 30mph zone.
Cardiff Crown Court heard evidence from the young passengers in West’s car who said he had been “showing off” and “snaking” – steering the car from side to side.
Keely had been nearing the end of the crossing when she was struck at around 9.30pm.
Sian told The Sun how the family had been on a day out to Barry Island and on returning the teenager had been restless and wanted to go for a walk.
Keely had undergone a kidney transplant around 18 months before and was only just getting back to full health.
Sian saw on her Facebook feed posts about a nearby crash but hadn’t put two and two together.
She had been calling her daughter on and off to try and find out where she was, when she eventually came through to the officer at the scene.
“There was no answer the first two times, I kept ringing,” she said. “I texted saying ‘can you just answer me, love, and let me know where you are?
“‘If you’re going to be late just let me know.’ Then I rang again and someone said ‘are you mum?’
“I said ‘yeah’ and she said ‘can I come round?’”
Sian explained: “I put it all together when the officer arrived and Keely wasn’t in the car with her.”
SuppliedKeely had been recovering from a kidney transplant when she died[/caption]
SuppliedSian said she screamed when cops told her Keely had died[/caption]
South Wales PoliceWest was jailed last month[/caption]
However, she is still baffled as to whether she actually heard Keely crying or not, and if the officer was simply trying to save her from further trauma.
“When I spoke to the officer, she said ‘that can’t be right’, but I heard her crying her eyes out. “She said ‘no, she was gone about half an hour before that’.”
Sian said: “I don’t know what that was. I’ll never ever forget it. You know what a loved one sounds like.
“I’m adamant it was Keely. I do believe in that, in spiritual stuff.
“That moment, I still can’t comprehend what it meant – it was a surreal out of body experience.”
Sian went on to say: “It’s every parents’ worst nightmare.”
She is also campaigning for tougher sentencing, calling West’s punishment “a slap on the wrist”, considering he took a life.
“It’s absolutely awful, it’s an insult to Keely’s name,” Sian continued. “That poor child, she’s been so ill, she was doing the right thing, she was on a crossing.
“She was nearly at the end of the crossing. But then you’ve got him being an idiot, too busy showing off.”
She said: “Why is there not anything tougher put in place for these situations? Someone knows someone who’s been in this situation. It’s close to everyone’s heart. There’s nothing being done about it.”
SuppliedKeely had been out for a walk after a family day out when she died[/caption]
SuppliedThe teenager was on a zebra crossing when she was struck[/caption]
WNSWest admitted to causing death by careless driver – with the court hearing his car’s black box had been removed[/caption]
Sian went on to describe a car as a weapon.
“It’s a weapon just like a loaded gun or a knife, except I think it’s probably worse because you take a test to use it.
“When you get into a car you make a choice. You make a decision to drive safely.”
Referring to West, Sian said: “My daughter was a human. He clearly had a slap on the wrist, for what? He needs punishment and the categories need to be stricter.
“There needs to be tougher things in place. They failed me and failed Keely, the justice system.
“If I can help another family, that’s what I want to do. He can never replace what we’ve lost but he’ll be out in six to eight months for killing a child. That’s not okay.
“There’s got to be a line drawn somewhere.”
Sian said Keely had begun having issues with her kidney when she was around 11 or 12, during Covid lockdown.
“She just didn’t look herself. She went yellow, dark round the eyes. All of sudden she became really ill.”
She was diagnosed with stage five chronic kidney disease and spent a year and a half on dialysis before having the transplant in September 2021.
“She just got back on her feet that year up to when she died,” Sian said. “She was still a bit unwell and back and forth at the hospital.”
Sian described her daughter as petit and only weighing around six stone.
West was sentenced to 16 months for causing death by careless driving and 11 months for causing death by driving while uninsured, to be served concurrently.
He was also disqualified from driving for two years and eight months.
In a victim impact statement, read out in court, Sian said: “I often have sleepless nights, panic attacks and I am in constant fear that I am going to lose another child to someone as careless as you.
“It haunts me daily. I close my eyes at night seeing my daughter Keely laying in her coffin. I have flashbacks daily of the day I identified her. I am forever in pain, all because of you.
“My other children are forever in pain. My seven-year-old son was five when Keely passed away, he asks for Keely every single day.
“He always asks ‘mum why did Keely have to die? Our lives are not the same anymore and I miss my big sister’.
“I am broken, my family are broken and you have broken all of us.”
To view Sian’s petition click here.
WNSA mural to Keely has been created near her home[/caption]
WNSKeely died at the scene, a few hundred yards from her home[/caption]
SuppliedKeely still suffers from flashbacks following her daughter’s death[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
