A dangerous driver crashed into the car Seán was travelling in
18:54, 04 Feb 2026Updated 19:01, 04 Feb 2026
All‑Ireland minor winner Seán O’Leary at the AXA Roadsafe Show in Killarney
A former Kerry footballer who suffered life-changing injuries when a dangerous driver crashed into his girlfriend’s car has shared his story to raise awareness of road safety.
Seán O’Leary from Kilcummin village in County Kerry was left in “excuciating pain from head to toe” after the incident on July 10th 2021. The former Kerry senior football panellist was 22 at the time and was sitting in the passenger seat of his girlfriend Emma’s car as she drove both of them home from a Munster Championship match in Thurles. The head-on collision occurred outside Abbeyfeale, and Seán remembers his right femur bursting out through his skin and causing a significant amount of blood loss.
The driver that crashed into Emma’s vehicle was found later found guilty of dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm and sentenced to four years in jail. Seán previously shared that he was “very lucky that I didn’t bleed to death in the first hour or two,” adding: “Once I got to the hospital the main thing they did was to start to give me blood transfusions because of the amount of blood I lost. If that blood wasn’t there when I got to the hospital, there’s a huge chance I wouldn’t have survived at all. I needed seven units of blood which equates to around seven pints of blood. I didn’t even know what a blood transfusion was prior to my accident.
Kerry’s Sean O’Leary in 2018(Image: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo)
“It was only a few days later that I realised how much blood I’d gotten and the fact that it saved my life. It really opened my eyes to how vital they are really.” Seán parents were also travelling home from the same game and arrived at the scene of the collision as emergency services were cutting him out of the car.
“My father actually went and helped emergency services try and cut me out of the car. And my mother stayed with me looking in the window, pleading with me not to die in front of her own eyes,” he told the Irish Independent.
Seán was rushed to Tralee Hospital for treatment of a wide range of serious injuries including two broken legs, a broken sternum and a concussion. He later spent almost eight months in a wheelchair and had to teach himself how to walk again. It was a harrowing experience for the young man – but since the crash, he’s been telling his story to raise awarness of the risks of dangerous driving and show the importance of donating blood.
Seán O’Leary in hospital(Image: AXA Ireland / Facebook)
Late last month, he spoke at the AXA Roadsafe Show in Killarney to hundreds of secondary school students about how a dangerous driver changed his life forever. It was a strange, full-circle moment for the Kerry man, as he attended the same road show ten years ago when he was in transition year. A video from the event – which you can check out below – shares some of Seán’s speech to the crowd. He told students that after the incident, he was afraid he would be paralysed for the rest of his life.
The AXA Roadsafe Roadshows have been running for over 15 years, and held in conjunction with An Garda Síochána, local authorities, emergency services, A&E Consultants and relatives of road collision victims. Their goal to deliver hard-hitting messages about road safety to Transition Year students across Ireland through a mix of video and moving first-hand accounts.
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