'I was texting, ringing but she didn't reply': The families left behind after a road death

Jaidyn Rice's bedroom has not been touched since last July. It's exactly as the 16-year-old left it, on the evening of 8 July, when she left her house in Bangor for the short walk to her friend's house. She never came back.

Jaidyn died after being hit by a car. On the same night, 12-year-old Lucas Trainor died in a crash in Portaferry, County Down.

They are two of the 56 lives lost on Northern Ireland's roads in 2025.

Reducing this number has been the aim of road safety officials and the police for years - and it's why they're looking at everything from speed limit changes to driving licence reforms to bring it down.

Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Ch Supt Sam Donaldson said the number of deaths on the road had fallen significantly in the last 50 years, but there had also been a "plateauing" of numbers.

The Department for Infrastructure, which is responsible for the roads and motoring, has said safety is a priority, while announcing major reforms to Northern Ireland's driving licensing laws.

But still there are families, like Jaidyn's, who lose loved ones and will be told the worst.

"When you hear that news, the best way I could possibly describe it - you can't breathe, you physically can't breathe," said her grandmother Judith Rice.

"Your chest just collapses and you're praying for it not to be true."

When Jaidyn left her home last July to walk a friend part of the way home, her mum Elaine Clarke was tracking her location on her phone and thought she had stopped to talk to a friend.

"I was texting and ringing her but she didn't reply.

"We have Life 360 [a location-sharing app] so I was checking her location and her location hadn't moved.

"We just live a few minutes up the road so I went down to where her location was - and she was there."

The emergency services had arrived to where Jaidyn had been hurt, but there was nothing that could be done.

For the next 11 hours, her family kept a vigil by her body as she lay on the road under a sheet.

The impact of that loss has been devastating on Jaidyn's friends and family. She was described as a thoughtful, kind teenager who loved pranks and was a natural leader who was in the Army Cadets.

At her funeral, her younger brother Kenley described her as like glitter, because "she sparkled everywhere she went".

Jaidyn was buried in a white dress, because, according to Judith, "she was never going to wear a wedding dress, she was never going to have what she should have had".

The same night Jaidyn died, so did Lucas Trainor in a road crash in Portaferry.

The two tragedies on the one day brought the families together - they have been touch with each other in the weeks and months since, to offer support and comfort.

A 30 year-old man has been charged in connection with Jaidyn's death. A 51 year-old man has been charged in connection with Lucas' death.

In 2025, 56 people died on the roads, compared to 69 deaths in 2024 and 71 in 2023.

The majority of those deaths last year occurred in the 25-64 age range (44%) and were men (69%) - this has followed the trend of the last three years, in which crashes with fatalities were more likely in these categories.

However, while road deaths were lower in 2025, the trend up until that point was an increase in people being seriously injured in crashes.

In 2024, the las year with a full set of data on injuries, there were 1,008 people killed or seriously injured on Northern Ireland's roads - that's up from 951 the year before in 2023, and 785 almost a decade earlier in 2015.

PSNI Ch Supt Sam Donaldson also pointed out that many fatal crashes happen on rural roads.

"75% of our fatalities, and killed and seriously injured, do take place on our rural roads. And we do live in a fairly rural place," he said.

He also pointed to an emerging trend around older people being involved in collisions.

"There's a message there all of us - if you're a young new driver, slow down because you're likely to cause an issue.

"If you're a middle-aged driver you're the people that are probably doing the most miles, but you're the people that are getting caught speeding so change your mentality.

"And if you're an older person or an elderly vulnerable person on the road, think about how you can keep safe as a pedestrian, think about how you can keep safe on the road."

Earlier this month, the Department for Infrastructure launched a consultation on speed limits, including a proposal to introduce 20mph zones in all areas that are currently 30mph.

Jaidyn Rice's mother and grandmother both support a proposed reduction, recalling what they observed when visiting her memorial in the weeks after her death.

"As we were standing there, the cars were flying past, over the speed limit, just flying past," Elaine said.

Judith added: "The reality of it is you're better being five minutes late than having fold-up chairs and going and sitting at your loved one's grave every day.

"There has to be a change - and if anyone sharing the brutality of it and the devastation of it makes a difference, I ask anyone to please stop and think."