Janice Kavanagh was only 10 years old when she was killed by a drunk driver just three weeks before Christmas in 1991.

Although it’s been almost 32 years, her mother Margaret said the pain is everlasting.

“The pain just doesn’t go away. People say time heals; time heals on the outside but not your inside, your heart is just broken,” she said. “There is no point in me saying that time heals.”

Janice was on the way to a local shop with her friends to buy sweets that evening and although her friends ran across the road, Janice waited for the pedestrian light.

“I knew when they said that she was knocked down that she didn’t go against the lights, because she was that type of child,” she said.

She said Janice was “a dream”, easy-going, and cared deeply for her siblings and her parents. "A van came along and just took her off her feet and took her up 60 yards from the lights."

Ms Kavanagh’s husband was at work that evening and once Janice’s friends knocked at her door to tell her about the incident, she said “not for one minute” did she think that she might have been killed.

“When I ran down I looked at the lights and I just couldn’t believe that she was up the other end of the street,” she said.

Janice died instantly.

Ms Kavanagh said the aftermath was “turmoil” and their lives were turned “upside down”.

Ms Kavanagh said she experienced a breakdown five years later, after trying to be strong and going “on and on”, which took its toll.

“I just couldn't cope anymore then,” she said.

She still wakes up every morning and remembers that Janice is missing, and has never parted with any of her belongings.

For Janice’s 40th birthday, her mother recycled her clothes to make teddy bears and hearts for Janice’s friends, who still live in the area and have their own children now.

The drunk driver fled the scene but was caught soon after by a friend of the Kavanaghs who witnessed the collision.

After being found, he told them: “I didn’t do anything.” Ms Kavanagh said he was caught drunk driving again just four months after Janice died.

He was sentenced to five years in prison.

Patricia Gibbons from Offaly had been married to her husband James for just eight months when he was killed on the morning of January 17, 2008.

Ms Gibbons was five weeks pregnant with their second child at the time.

While at work and after not being able to get through to James, Ms Gibbons said she had “an eerie feeling”.

When her father came to her workplace, she knew something was wrong.

James, who was just 28, was driving his lorry to work when another lorry veered into his path and hit him head-on, killing him instantly.

The collision happened in Tipperary, on the Roscrea to Templemore road at Ashmere.

James’ lorry was in working order, Ms Gibbons said, however, the other lorry was not roadworthy, and had bald tyres.

She said James was hardworking and made time for everyone, always offering to help, while having a deep love for his son Conor. 

Ms Gibbons said she has received immense support from the Irish Road Victims Association (IRVA). ”We’re all part of a group that we don’t want to be part of.” 

IRVA hosts an annual day of remembrance for those who have lost loved ones on Irish roads.

“Every year we have to get more tables to put frames on because there's so many people killed on the roads, so many people's lives altered and changed forever,” she said.