Driver in death case
Friends of a 19-year-old Shropshire woman, who had only recently passed her driving test, said she was driving "too fast" prior to a crash which claimed the life of a college friend, a court has heard.
Kirsty Williams, from Baldwin Webb Avenue, in Donnington, Telford, appeared at Shrewsbury Crown Court yesterday charged with causing the death by dangerous driving of 17-year-old Jonathan Humphreys, from Baschurch, in a crash which happened on January 30 last year at Huffley Lane, near Bomere Heath. Williams has previously denied the charge.
Mr Francis Laird, prosecuting, told jurors the case was "very sad all round" but he asked the jury to put sympathies for Williams and Mr Humphreys aside for the duration of the trial.
He said Williams herself, who had only owned the car for three or four days, had been injured in the collision and was still on crutches. Mr Laird said the crash involved Williams's Vauxhall Corsa, which she was driving with four of her friends as passengers, and a BMW driven by Cecil Robinson, which contained two other people.
Williams, who had been a student at Walford College at the time, had agreed to drive her friends to McDonald's, in Shrewsbury, for lunch on the day of the crash and it was while on the way back to college that the incident occurred, Mr Laird said.
He told jurors Williams had passed her driving test in the November before the collision, adding that after the crash two of the passengers said she was driving "too fast".
He told the court the crash was down to a combination of factors.
He said: "The loss of control of the vehicle was as a result of the bend, the steering of the driver and under inflation of the tyres or quite possibly a combination of all three."
The trial continues.
