A woman who was involved in 13 car accidents before she reached the age of 30 has said she does not think she will get behind the wheel again, adding “I think I’ve pushed my luck enough with driving”. Jennifer Cairns, 50, a mum of two from Ohio now living in Belfast, still has injections in her neck after a dramatic car crash involving a lorry pushing her off the road.
Since moving to Belfast in 2001, the entrepreneur has not obtained her full driving licence in the UK, as she thinks she may have PTSD from the accidents, despite not being phased by them in her twenties. She counts herself as one of the lucky ones, mainly because her childhood best friend died in a car accident involving a lorry in 1990.
Jennifer has generalised anxiety disorder, autism and ADHD, and thinks her nervousness towards driving has only come to light more than 20 years after the car crashes because of this. The first car accident she was involved in occurred in 1980 when she was seven years old and her mum was driving.
