A DEVASTATED mum whose son died when a car ploughed into his moped on the A31 at Runfold has launched a petition calling for lower speed limits and a ban on mopeds on the Farnham bypass.

Conner Traves, 20, suffered catastrophic injuries and was killed instantly when he was knocked off his moped and hit by two oncoming cars as he made his way home from a friend’s house on the evening of October 16, 2019.

In April, driver Victoria Howell, 23, was sentenced to 24 weeks in prison suspended for two years at Guildford Magistrates’ Court, after admitting causing death by careless driving.

Howell was also ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work, given a six-month curfew and a two-year driving disqualification until February 2023 with an extended re-test.

But Conner’s heartbroken family, who witnessed the traumatic aftermath of the crash having been driving in front of his moped minutes before the crash, say the sentence was an “absolute insult”.

And they have also taken issue with the fact under-powered mopeds like Conner’s are allowed on busy dual carriageways like the A31 in the first place, launching a petition to try to prevent future tragedies.

Mum Fiona said: “I know everyone says their children are perfect, but in my eyes he really was perfect. He had a pure heart of gold.

“It’s been horrendous, 18 months of hell, and it gets harder every day. It is so hard to keep on top of day-to-day tasks, because I spend all my time down at the cemetery with him.

“Everything at home has just come to a standstill. I just got no interest in it. It’s awful.

“He was very much a people person, even to the point where one night he told me he was staying at a friend’s house and then I found out he actually slept outside Aldershot library with a homeless man, just to keep him company because he didn’t like the thought of him being on his own.

“When he got paid he used to go into McDonald’s and buy the homeless people a hot drink and something to eat.

“But at the same time, although he didn’t get the same loyalty back from most people, he never held a grudge against anybody.

“And that’s the hardest thing about the sentence this woman’s being given, because had Conner had been here, if he’d survived his injuries, he would have very much forgiven her for it.

“That’s hard to come to terms with because I think the sentence was an absolute insult.

“He had only just turned 20 years old and had his whole life ahead of him. Conner had his problems – he had autism and suffered with his mental health. But he was making changes in his life and had all that taken away from him.

“He was killed on the Wednesday, but on the Thursday he was going with a support worker to view a residential college in Wiltshire where he wanted to go and learn landscape gardening. He would have been moving in there on the Monday afterwards.

“So for her to walk away with a slap on the wrist, it was a huge kick in the gut for me, because I just feel she got nothing and we’re the ones left with the life sentence.”

Making the sentence even harder for the family to accept is the fact Howell has never shared a full account of that horrible night – giving a ‘no comment’ interview to police and later charged with a lesser offence of ‘careless’, rather than ‘dangerous’, driving.

Fiona continued: “The hardest thing is as a family we may never know the real truth about what happened that night because she never gave an account. So as a family, we’re still left with questions that have never been answered.”

Howell did, through a letter read out by her solicitor in court, tell the family they could contact her “whether it was in four months or 40 years”. But Fiona says she would find it hard to believe Howell’s account, having not spoken up in court.

What is known is that Conner was following his mum Fiona and dad Walter back home to Camberley after visiting a friend’s house in Headley Down, when they took a wrong turn and, instead of coming off the A31 at Farnham, carried on towards the Hog’s Back.

Conner, whose small 50cc moped struggled to reach speeds of more than around 35mph, then became separated from his parents’ car in traffic – but continued eastbound along the A31 towards the Blackwater Valley junction.

However, just after the Runfold slip road at around 9.30pm, on a clear and dry evening, Howell’s Suzuki Vitara smashed into the back of Conner’s moped and sent him sprawling onto the busy dual carriageway.

Perhaps because he was wearing dark clothing on an unlit stretch of the A31, Conner was hit again by two further vehicles and dragged along the road for as much as 100 yards. He was killed instantly, according to the coroner.

Fiona said: “It guilts us every single day that we took the wrong turning and ended up on that road. It plays on our mind and we feel absolutely terrible for it. But we were just following the sat-nav and no fault of our own, we ended up on that road.

“At first we could see his headlight behind us, but then I said to my husband, ‘we’re going to have to slow down and wait for him to catch up with us’. So we pulled over and put our hazards on. And I just knew something wasn’t right, because Conner’s light wasn’t getting any closer.

“So we went down to the roundabout near the Hog’s Back, turned around and coming back up the opposite side of the road we obviously noticed there was an accident. And my husband said he could see Conner’s moped. From there on, it was just a nightmare that never ends.”

Fiona and her husband got as close to the scene of the accident as they could, and were sitting on the side of the road alone when they were approached by a fireman.

“I said to him, please tell me my son’s okay. And he just said, ‘I’m sorry, I wish I could’ and walked away,” Fiona added.

“We were just left there on the side of the road to deal with it ourselves for what felt like hours. I was hysterical and my legs turned to jelly and I froze.

“As much as I wanted to move, it was almost like I died that night with Conner. My legs were paralysed.

“My husband got out of the car and ran down towards Conner, but was dragged back by two ambulance workers. He just remembers seeing Conner’s trainers in the road, and the moped embedded into the woman’s car. So he knew it was Connor, but he said he couldn’t see Connor any-where.”

Conner’s sister Kerry also tried to get through to her mum, but was also held back by the emergency services. But eventually, Fiona was seen by an ambulance crew, which took her and her husband home just before midnight – leaving their car on the side of the A31.

“Another thing that plays on my mind is the fact I couldn’t get to him that night to comfort my own son.

“They did say he would have been killed on impact, but that’s something I don’t think we’re ever going to know. And as parents, you do question it – did he or didn’t he? We will never know that.

“He wasn’t just my son, he was my best friend. I was his rock just as much as he was my rock. He came to me about absolutely everything.

“All my life, I fought his corner and I’ll carry on fighting, because I wouldn’t like another family to go through what we’ve had to go through.

“Our son being killed is one thing, but then knowing the injuries he suffered is just another. It’s absolutely heartbreaking.

“What I didn’t realise before is Conner’s moped was only 50cc and he was only able to do a maximum speed of around 35mph. So he stood no chance against traffic coming at 70mph.

“I don’t think mopeds that can only do that sort of speed should be allowed on dual carriageways that can’t keep up with the other traffic, doing 60mph-plus.

“So one of the things we want to change in Conner’s name is to restrict mopeds from going on dual carriageways, if that’s the only speed they can do.

“We also want to see extra lighting down that stretch of the A31 road. Because Conner was in dark clothing, he ended up being hit a further two times – at no fault of the drivers. Had there been lighting down that road, maybe that would have had made a difference.

“And finally, we want to reduce the speed because cars just fly down that road.”

* Sign the family’s petition online at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/583782