Sonia's Story

Sonia is from Birmingham and has been an active RoadPeace West Midlands member since her loss in 2021.  Sonia’s brother, Arjun Singh Gandham, was a rear passenger in a vehicle at the hands of a dangerous driver.  At 9pm on Friday 26th March 2021, Arjun’s family were ripped apart by the news that their 19-year-old son and brother had been killed after the vehicle he was a passenger in had crashed.  Sonia and her family stood on Pelsall Lane, Walsall, for 4 hours that night, waiting to identify Arjun as forensics gathered evidence. 

The ripple effect of Arjun’s death has had a devastating impact on the family.  The driver was known to the family and lived on a neighbouring street.  The driver's arrogance and lack of remorse forced Sonia, her mother and her sister to leave their family home and move to a new city. 

The driver pled guilty to Causing Death by Dangerous Driving and was sentenced to 1 year and 10 months in prison. 

Arjun was a handsome, ambitious and charismatic young man.  He aspired to become an aircraft engineer and worked hard in his apprenticeship.  His bubbly and outspoken personality made him the main character of every room he entered.  Although he loved to be funny and playful, Arjun was a mature and family-oriented man.  Known and loved by so many, Arjun was described as a social butterfly with the ability to put a smile on anyone’s face.  His positive energy was contagious, and his family say pictures of his smile get them through the darkest days. 

Sonia describes RoadPeace as the life-jacket she was thrown when she was drowning in grief.  Having the responsibility of organising Arjun’s funeral, dealing with the criminal court proceedings and having a civil case against the driver- she never had a space she felt safe enough to crumble in.  RoadPeace provided her with a room filled with like-minded grievers who held her hand as she felt every emotion and reached heartbreaking milestones.  As well as this, RoadPeace allow her to cherish Arjun’s memory and share the tragic story of his loss to raise awareness of the shattering impact dangerous driving has on victims. 

We have zero tolerance to road incidents.

So what are we doing about it? We are taking action to tackle dangerous and anti-social driving and removing unsafe vehicles from the road. This will range from uninsured drivers, street cruising, dangerous driving and road racing. 

You said it, we did it. See our action plan here:

Download the action plan

If you'd like to know more about RoadPeace, visit the website here.