A family left heartbroken after the death of their beloved mum have told a court of the devastating impact of their loss. Shirley-Ann Dumbuya, 38, was killed after her car broke down on the M60 and a lorry smashed into the back of her.
She had telephoned her husband, Peniel Dumbuya, to let him know the car had stopped in between lane one and the junction 20 slip road on the anticlockwise carriageway, and he advised her to put her hazard lights on and get out of the car if she could. Immediately afterwards he phoned insurance company Green Flag who advised that they couldn’t assist unless she could go to the hard shoulder.
Minutes later, John Bowers, 35, driving a skip lorry, collided with Mrs Dumbuya’s Kia Ceed. Emergency services attended and she was cut from the vehicle, but despite the best efforts of medical staff, she was pronounced dead at the scene.
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At a sentencing hearing at Manchester Crown Court, Bowers, of Sefton Road, Preston, was handed a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to causing death by careless driving.
During the hearing, Mrs Dumbuya’s daughter, 19-year-old Alice, bravely took to the witness box to read her victim personal statement on behalf of her family.
She said on the morning of January 21 2021 their lives were ‘shattered forever’ when her mum was killed in a crash that was ‘unnecessary’.
“My father received a telephone call from my mother, who is in complete panic after she had broken down in lane one of the M60,” she said. “They had swapped cars because the windscreen wipers were not working on her car and took his car. My dad usually uses the Kia and my mum used a Nissan Qashqai.
“After my father received the phone call, he drove to the M60 on the route he knows she would take. Eventually he saw a police car parked at the junction close to Costco and wondered why it was there.
“He continued along the M60 looking for my mum, only to find on his arrival at the scene police, fire and ambulance crews. He looked to his left and in disbelief, recognised the registration number of the Kia motor vehicle on the embankment on the side of the motorway.
“He pulled over, got out of his car and a police officer asked him why he was there only to answer, 'that is my wife.' He told me he was stood there in disbelief.
“He was stood there helplessly, the most difficult thing he had to endure, seeing that she had already passed away. You can only imagine how that must have felt, to see your wife there, still in the car at the time and that really hurts him.”
She said an officer explained to her dad that due to COVID restrictions, usually an identification would be conducted at the mortuary, but Mrs Dumbuya was placed in an ambulance and taken off the motorway.
Her dad was allowed to sit with her alone in the ambulance before she was taken away, she said. She added that they were very close, and if they went out, they were always on the phone to each other.
Alice continued: “When my father received the call from my mum, I was told by my dad to take my brother and sisters to school in a taxi. When my dad was out looking for my mum after she called him, I kept checking my phone, highways agency and AA websites, looking for incidents, trying to see what has happened.
“When we arrived at school, I received a call from my dad telling me to come home straight away. I knew something had happened, but he would not tell me what it was.
“I kept asking, 'Is mum, okay?' but he would not answer me. The taxi driver looked confused, but he just took us home.
“I was constantly trying to ring my mum, and someone answered the phone. I still don’t know who it was. My dad contacted the priest from our church to come round to our house, but he would not tell us what had happened.
“When we saw dad’s car come home, he took us upstairs and told us mum had died.”
'How do you tell a nine-year-old their mum isn't coming back?'
She said her dad can no longer drive down the motorway and has to drive in another direction to avoid the collision site, as it ‘brings back too many bad memories’. She added that recently her nine-year-old brother had started crying and asking for his mummy.
“How do you say to a 9-year-old boy that she is never coming back?” Alice said.
“He was a very quiet mummy's boy. We have had to change the house and the kitchen as they are always a constant reminder of my mother, everything has been changed so we can have a fresh start.”
She said her seven-year-old sister always asks for her mum to bring her a McDonald’s, and would tell people: “Mummy’s gone for McDonalds’.
“What are you supposed to say to a 6-year-old? She kept saying, “mummy’s getting me a McDonalds,” so my auntie went to get her one. But she did not want it. She wanted her mother to get it her,” Alice said.
“My mum used to say, “Good behaviour brings good rewards.” and so she would get a MacDonald’s. She didn’t know mum wasn’t coming back. But after the funeral she realised it was real now and mum was not coming back.”
Alice said she had finished her college exams and her goal was to get to university, but said she didn’t want to go because it meant leaving her family. She said she also moved her job back to Manchester so she could be at home.
She told the court that her dad is suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Mr Dumbuya went back to work as a bus driver for a short period of time but following an incident in Oldham when he saw a similar skip wagon driving towards him, he went into a panic and had to pull over at a bus depot to ask for help. He has not been back to work since, Alice said.
She said that her mum was very ‘family orientated’ and her life was her family. “That is one thing we still focus on and always try to be close. Life can change in an instant,” she said.
'You have taken the life of a mother of four'
At the funeral, many attended and many more watched live via Zoom, she said. An African radio station covered the funeral and they received messages from people and friends in America, the court heard.
“My mother was loved by so many people and her life was cut short just like that, with something that was so avoidable,” she wept.
Bowers initially pleaded not guilty and it wasn’t until 18 months later, after he had learnt the maximum sentence was a suspended jail term, that he admitted to causing death by careless driving. Alice said that extending the case for 18 months was ‘so painful’ for the family.
“You, taking some responsibility for your own actions, does not make it any easier for us but at least we know you feel some sort of remorse,” she said.
“We know you did not get up that morning and decide you were going to kill someone, and we know it was a total accident. But from that, you must take responsibility for what has happened and not drag it out for 18 months.”
Mrs Dumbuya’s car broke down in lane one of the motorway, and she was unable to move her car or get out of her car.
“I can only imagine the panic and fright my mother must have felt, when she was on the phone to my dad screaming,” Alice said.
“It wasn’t like she stopped and immediately hit from behind straight away. She had broken down, stopped and a number of minutes had gone by before she was hit. The collision could have been so avoidable.
“When I tell people about it, they ask ‘why hasn’t he seen her?’. He was in a large truck and sat higher than everyone else on the road.
“It was so avoidable, and this is what is so upsetting. How can this happen?
“You have taken the life of a mother of 4 kids and a wife. She was so young, only 38 and had so much life to live.”
She said her mum was on her way to sit a nursing exam and was due to graduate from the University of Bolton in July this year. She has since been awarded a Posthumous degree in Nursing.
Emotionally concluding her statement, Alice said :“You never think it will happen until it happens to you. I lost my best friend.
“My mother will never see her children grow up, children get married and have grandchildren. She was so looking forward to that as she spoke about this. She never knew that I passed my A levels to get into university.
“The milestones in our lives will never be the same without my mum being there to appreciate it, will sadden me forever.”
John Bowers was sentenced to a six month jail sentence that was suspended for 12 months. He was also disqualified from driving for three years and his licence was endorsed.
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