‘I just wanted to clean up my dying son after crash’
While Steph Alger was in the hospital waiting for her son to take his last breath after an accident, she said she just wanted to clean him up and take care of him, but the resources weren’t available.
“She was my baby, she was 18 but she was still my baby,” she said.
Since the death of Etienne, who prefers to be known as Justin, when his car went off the road while exceeding the speed limit near Dove Holes, Derbyshire, in June 2020, his family have launched a charity providing specially designed toiletry bags to intensive care wards.
Steph is also campaigning for safer driving and police are using a video she recorded about the impact of Justin’s death to send to drivers caught speeding.
Steph says the feedback on the bath boxes has been fantastic [Steph Alger]
At the time of the accident, Justin was driving 66 mph in the wet and, unbeknownst to him, had a nail in his tire.
Steph said she suffered a catastrophic brain injury after her car rolled over the edge of an embankment and crashed into the stone wall below.
He said doctors at the hospital turned off the machines.
“For two hours we witnessed him die before our eyes in a way no parent should experience.”
Steph added: “I wanted to wipe his hands, face and feet, draw his blood and take care of him the way you want your loved one or your child.”
He said that since there were no resources for his family at the hospital, they wanted to create a beautiful box for other families.
Steph said charity Just.Bathe has distributed 140 boxes to 14 hospitals so far and they plan to place the boxes in all adult intensive care wards in the UK where young people aged 16 and over are admitted over the next few years.
“It doesn’t matter how old your child is, whether they’re 18 or 40; if you’re a parent, they’re your baby.”
Just.Bathe was officially registered and started delivering in June 2025, but Steph said their family funded the project first and started putting the boxes together in 2022.
“That’s because parents who are faced with the same situation we are facing, the same terrible situation, are not short of resources.
“It gives them something meaningful to do, something to look back on what they did for their children.”
Steph said the “Just” in the charity’s title was used because it stands for Justin. [Just.Bathe]
Steph also continues to campaign against speeding.
In 2024 he supported Derbyshire Police’s Just One Second campaign, which warns drivers against speeding and being distracted behind the wheel.
Now he’s partnered with the police Community Speed Monitoring planand drivers caught going too fast will receive a letter with a QR code with a link to the video of Steph’s story.
Derbyshire Police said that when drivers were asked about this recently, 91 per cent of those who watched the video admitted it made them want to reduce their speed.
Speaking about her son’s death, Steph said: “I can’t express how bad this is and it affects your life forever.” [BBC]
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