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A bereaved Haverhill mother has made a moving plea to prevent other families enduring the trauma of the off-road motorbike accident which killed her son.

With the approach of summer and rising use of a variety of off-road motorbikes, particularly on the Clements estate, Haverhill police turned to Paula Armstrong to help them spread the message that such bikes are dangerous.

Nearly three years ago her son Andrew, who had just turned 18, died when the motocross bike he had bought just two days before was in collision with a telegraph pole on a field footpath between the bypass and Ladygate Wood.

Mrs Armstrong, 43, pleaded with the parents of any youngsters who had taken up off-road motorbiking to take responsibility and either stop them or get them properly trained and equipped.

"I now do believe it is the parents' responsibility," she said. "Without guidance a child thinks he is invincible.

"If you know your children are going about on bikes, wake up to the dangers, because it could change your whole life."

The accident has had a terrible effect on Andrew's family. His dad, also Andrew, suffered a complete mental breakdown, spending three months in hospital and has been unable to work since.

His sister Melissa, now 24, is married with children, but still finds it very difficult to come to terms with the loss of her brother.

"She talks about him every day," said Mrs Armstrong, "and she says she sees his face in her sleep.

"You don't only have to deal with the trauma of losing a child but you have to build up your whole family again.

"You lose your whole direction of life. Everything stops in your mind. Everything was just a mess and I could easily have topped myself. But I had to be the one who coped."

Part of the devastation has been caused by a sense that they should have done something to prevent it happening.

Andrew started with bikes as a child and went on to off-road motorbikes from about 13 or 14. He would go out and find old mopeds and do them up.

"I used to moan about them, and we hated it when he got this one, but he was 18. This was his first proper sized one, and he got it two days before the accident for £600."

The bike was a Honda 125 limited edition motocross two-stroke, and it was his pride and joy.

"We sat in the front garden with him and he was polishing it up," said Mrs Armstrong. "I said it would be the death of him, but you don't think, do you?

"I have torn myself up inside about this, thinking if only I had been firmer and said no, and taken all the screaming and shouting."

Just two days after Andrew bought the bike, his mother was at a friend's house. "It was a normal day," she said, "and about 1pm I had a hysterical phone call from my daughter to say there had been an accident and he was unconscious.

"We made our way up to the field and I had a sinking feeling. I've never felt anything like it in my life.

"I could see by the size of what was there that this was bad. There was ambulances on the road and in the field and police everywhere.

"The air ambulance man came towards me and I looked at him but I didn't need to know any more. I put my hands over my ears and I was just hysterical after that.

"A mother only knows her true love for her children if she has to go and look at one of them on a morgue slab."

Andrew, a former Castle Manor school student, was a very popular lad, evidenced by over 400 who attended his funeral.

He was particularly keen on music and DJ-ing and had been taken up by an established local musician Mark Crawford. The two had been making CDs and were on the verge of sending them to a promoter.

He had a wide group of friends and had never been in any trouble.

"Just the week before I was so proud of him when he turned 18," said Mrs Armstrong. Now she still keeps his bedroom how it was, at their Queensway home.

On the nearby grass area on the Parkway estate, St Edmundsbury Council have put in concrete footings for a bench in his memory which Mrs Armstrong is planning.

A memorial event on the first anniversary of his death raised £150, but a total of £600 is required for a bench to fulfil the council's health and safety requirements.

Haverhill police have been talking with Haverhill Town Council about putting up the rest of the money. When the bench is in place Mrs Armstrong plans to scatter Andrew's ashes, which she still keeps, there.

Meantime she is determined to try to prevent anyone else having to go through what she has experienced.

"There could be another mother out there like me," she said. "She could be heading for the biggest wake-up call of her life - but it'll be too late.

"If you know a child is out there on a stupid moped - clapped-out or just bought - don't let them have one. You are not taking on your responsibility as a parent.

"If you are a young person who has a bike you must at least have the right equipment - helmet and protective clothing."

Andrew had a helmet but it came off with the force of the accident. If he had had protective clothing his injuries may not have been so bad.

"I just have this big hole in my life and it will never be gone," said Mrs Armstrong. "You are left with an emptiness for the rest of your life.

"If one mother in the town takes notice of this then I'll have done my job and Andrew's death won't have been in vain."

* PC Will Wright, who was first on the scene at the accident, urged people to call police as soon as possible if they saw a youngster on one of these off-road bikes.

"You could be saving a life," he said. "And there is the danger to the public as well as the rider.

"Every landowner around the edge of Haverhill has told us that no one has permission to use their land for off-road motorbiking."

PC Wright said they had had several meetings and consultations with all the local councils and an off-road motor-biking organisation, to try to set up a place where the activity could go on in safety.

But any plans had always fallen down over the fact that there is no land around Haverhill available for it.