'I knew I could never make it right'

Life Changing

BBC

Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.6 • 735 Ratings

🗓️ 8 November 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In August of 2006, Teresa Clark was driving five of her friends back home after a day at a music festival. Several hours into the journey she fell asleep at the wheel of their people carrier and crashed. Three passengers were killed, two others were injured as well as Teresa herself.

She was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving and spent time in prison. The guilt and shame of carrying that loss of life almost destroyed her. But in the 17 years since it happened Teresa has rebuilt; she now works in the mental health and wellbeing sector trying to keep the vow she made to live her life for her friends, and do some good in their memory.

She tells Dr Sian Williams how she has rebuilt her life in the years since - keeping the vow she made to live her life for her friends, and do some good in their memory.

Details of support with mental health issues and bereavement are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy.
0:05.4	My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds.
0:10.8	The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that.
0:17.5	With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to
0:22.4	helping you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all put
0:28.3	together by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life,
0:35.0	check out BBC Sounds.
0:41.3	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:46.5	Hello and welcome to the series that hears from people who've lived through transformative experiences, those moments that shift life on its axis and change it forever.
0:52.8	Today, that moment involves an incident that seriously impacted
0:57.0	the lives of multiple people. We're going to focus on just one of them, a woman at the
1:02.3	centre of that event who was found responsible for the deaths of three of her friends. While we're
1:07.6	not hearing from the families of those who died today, they do know about this interview and are aware of this broadcast.
1:15.5	And so to today's guest.
1:17.7	In August of 2006, Theresa Clark was driving five of her mates back home to Kent after a festival.
1:25.3	Before they'd left, she'd taken ecstasy. Several hours into the journey,
1:29.7	she fell asleep at the wheel of their people carrier and crashed. The front seat passenger,
1:34.9	and two in the back were killed. Two others were injured, as well as Teresa herself.
1:40.9	The guilt and shame of carrying that loss of life almost destroyed her, but it didn't.
1:47.0	When I met her, I asked her first to take us back to what life was like before the accident.
1:52.4	Well, actually, 27-year-old Teresa wasn't that happy really when I looked back at where I was in my life.
2:00.0	I'd finished university in the year before or two years before that.
	...

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