The driver of the vehicle who survived a collision which claimed three teenagers’ lives broke down in tears as she recalled telling her children to close their eyes because she feared they were going to die.
The woman spoke out as the driver of the out-of-control Ford Fiesta, 19-year-old Edward Spencer, was detained for 24 months for causing the deaths of fellow sixth formers Matilda Seccombe, 16, who was known as Tilly, Harry Purcell, a 17-year-old twin, and Frank Wormald, 16, by careless driving.
The female motorist, who was hospitalised alongside her children following the April 2023 collision, said she still suffers pain, nightmares and flashbacks following the crash.
And she told how she saw ‘cocky and indifferent’ Spencer smirking and dancing at an earlier court appearance.
Spencer stood staring at the judge as he was sentenced to 24 months in a young offenders’ institution at Warwick Crown Court on Monday.
The teen driver had only passed his test five weeks earlier and had been travelling at or around 64mph on the rural road when he lost control of his Ford Fiesta and hit a Fiat travelling in the opposite direction.
Describing her memories of the collision as Spencer drove his fellow sixth formers home from Chipping Campden School in the north Cotswolds, the other driver told how she was ferrying her stepchildren home from their mother’s house when she found herself ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’.
She added: ‘I was driving up the road and it was straight and I saw a silver Ford Fiesta coming towards me and I could tell it wasn’t in control and I knew there was nothing I could do.’
Sobbing, she added: ‘The only thing I could do – because I knew in that moment that my children were going to die – the only thing I could do to help them was to tell them to close their eyes. That’s the last thing I remember.’
Edward Spencer (pictured outside court today), was detained for 24 months for causing the deaths of three sixth formers and injuring three others
Tilly Seccombe was ‘bright, funny and kind with an army of friends and a family that loved her very much’, her mother said
The stepmother was knocked out in the collision which sent her Fiat 500 through a hedge and into a field behind the B4035 which straddles Gloucestershire’s border with Warwickshire.
The Fiat driver has joined the mothers of Harry and Tilly’ in condemning Spencer – who only pleaded guilty to the offences on what was due to be the first day of his trial last month – for his failure to take responsibility sooner and a lack of remorse, both of which had deepened their agony.
Speaking ahead of today’s sentencing, she told how she woke up in the car to her children screaming in the back seats, the rear end of the vehicle up against the hedge and the windscreen smashed.
The stepmother, who cannot be identified to protect the children’s anonymity, said: ‘They were both conscious, they were crying. Neither of them were knocked out so they remember the whole thing.
‘Some people came to help and got us out of the car and I had injured my abdomen and had to crawl across the field to be with the children. The air ambulance arrived and I remember thinking “Oh my God this is really bad”.’
She said that following the crash, it took the children – who have undergone a series of operations -‘a long time to be comfortable in cars again’, adding that they had undergone therapy to help them come to terms with what happened.
But the driver said she is still plagued by nightmares over what happened.
Expressing her condolences to the families of the victims, she said: ‘If I could’ve done anything to stop this I truly would. If I could go back and give my life to save theirs, to save the suffering my children felt, I would – without hesitation.
Spencer was slammed for being ‘cocky and indifferent’ by the female driver of the car he smashed into
Harry Purcell, 17, also lost his life after travelling as a passenger in Edward Spencer’s car
Frank Wormald also perished in the crash as Spencer drove the sixth formers home from Chipping Campden School
‘I wake up in the night from nightmares picturing the poor children in the other car who didn’t survive.
‘I have flashbacks to being in the car with my children -the intense fear that I felt that I have to hide for their sake. I see my own children dead in the back seats of my car.’
All three in the Fiat were hospitalised after the collision at Stretton-on-Fosse, Warwickshire, which saw four air ambulances attend the scene.
The woman and her children are still undergoing treatment for their injuries, which in the children’s case will continue into early adulthood.
Spencer admitted three counts of causing serious injury by careless driving in relation to those victims, on top of three counts of causing death by careless driving in relation to Tilly, Harry and Frank.
Frank was only in the car because he was going home with Harry to watch a football match on TV, sources revealed to MailOnline. Collision investigators found Spencer, from Newbold on Stour, Warwickshire, was travelling at or around 64mph a the time of the crash on the B4035 near Shipston-on-Stour – too fast for the road and conditions.
MailOnline has previously told how Spencer, from Newbold on Stour, Warwickshire, had promised Tilly’s father, James, a Parish councillor in their neighbouring village of Preston on Stour, that he would be ‘careful’ behind the wheel.
Harry Purcell was a Chelsea FC fan who enjoyed watching matches on the continent with his father and twin brother
Tilly had only been taking lifts from Spencer for around a week before the crash which killed her
Edward Spencer, seen here at a previous court appearance, was the driver of a Ford Fiesta containing three other teenagers travelling home from school together
Tilly had also raised concerns about the manner of his driving just hours before the fatal collision, her father revealed.
She had only been travelling to and from school with Spencer for around a week before he lost control of his Ford Fiesta on a bend.
Spencer voluntarily gave up his driving licence following the crash, but successfully reapplied to the DVLA for it last year. He is now said to be working at a sawmill on the edge of Preston on Stour, where Tilly’s family still live.
Mr Seccombe, 55, said it was ‘sickening’ to think that Spencer had possibly been driving himself to work at a timber yard which was ‘virtually within sight of Tilly’s bedroom window’.
Mr Seccombe and wife Juliet, 53, Harry’s mother Toni Purcell and the stepmother who was at the wheel of the Fiat are together calling for the introduction of graduated driving licences.
These could include restrictions such as a ban on new drivers carrying younger passengers, a late-night driving curfew for the first few months after passing a driving test, or other measures such as a minimum learning period.
And the three women urged the Government to do more to reduce the number of serious and fatal collisions involving young drivers.
The stepmother and Mrs Seccombe said that had Spencer, from Newbold on Stour, Warwickshire, shown remorse and apologised for the manner of his driving that day they would have forgiven him.
Juliet Seccombe, whose daughter Tilly Secombe, 16, was killed in the crash
Detective Superintendent Anna Middleton from Warwickshire Police
Toni Purcell, mother of Harry Purcell, 17, who was also killed in the crash
Edward Spencer, a keen rugby player, lost control of his Ford Fiesta while taking fellow sixth formers home from school
The stepmother said of Spencer: ‘I know nothing about him. I know nothing about his family – the only times I have seen him have been in court.
‘And the first time I saw him in court he was listening to music on his headphones and dancing in the waiting room. Seeing him in court – he smirked. He has shown nothing but belligerence.’
Addressing Spencer directly, the stepmother added: ‘You did not do this. You showed yourself to be cocky and indifferent, taking almost two years to take responsibility for your actions.
The stepmother said of Spencer: ‘I know nothing about him. I know nothing about his family – the only times I have seen him have been in court.
‘And the first time I saw him in court he was listening to music on his headphones and dancing in the waiting room. Seeing him in court – he smirked. He has shown nothing but belligerence.’
‘You showed everyone that you do not care about the innocent lives you have taken. You do not care that you nearly killed two innocent children. You have not shown any remorse, any regret, any guilt. That is unforgiveable.’
She said Spencer’s decision to save his guilty plea until what was due to be the first day of his trial last month had left her struggling to obtain any sort of closure.
‘I’m still going through it’, she added. ‘Up until a few days before the last court hearing I was fully expecting a trial to take place and know that I would have to stand in front of everyone and say what happened…what I saw.
‘And that was awful, just because he wouldn’t take any responsibility. He wouldn’t accept what he had done.
She added: ‘From the start, I always said there’s no punishment that anyone could give him that’s going to be worse than what he has done. But he doesn’t seem to be living with it. He doesn’t seem to care.’
Mrs Seccombe, who runs her own soft furnishing business, said the crash was due to Spencer’s ‘reckless behaviour putting his own ego before the safety of himself, his passengers and other road users.’
She added: No sentence will bring back our daughter and we take little comfort in the punishment of someone else’s son. However, we hope that Edward Spencer can at last reflect on his actions and finally accept responsibility for the devastation he has caused and learns to atone.’
The scene of the collision between Chipping Campden and Shipston-on-Stour in April 2023
Mrs Purcell, also 53, said the two years it took Spencer to admit his guilt had compounded her families’ pain.
She added: ‘Edward and his family have shown no remorse towards us…We will never forgive him.’
Mrs Purcell, from Blackwell, Warwickshire, backed the introduction of graduated driving licences and also called for young drivers to be required to have black box telematic devices fitted to their cars as a condition of insurance.
She said she insisted on one for Harry’s twin, who she asked not be named, when he passed his test, adding: ‘A black box is there to prevent a driver driving in any way other than at the speed limit and in a safe manner.’
She said her son was a keen Chelsea FC fan who longed for season tickets – only for the club to contact the family to reveal some had become available after the teenager’s death.
‘His passion was football and he had travelled all around Europe to various football matches with my husband and son’, Mrs Purcell said.
‘He wanted a big family. We’re very close as a family and we spoke so much about everything and it’s just been ripped away.’
Mrs Seccombe, from Preston on Stour, Warwickshire, said Tilly ‘had everything’, adding: ‘She was bright, funny and kind with an army of friends and a family that loved her very much.’
The bereaved mother called on the Government to stop ‘procrastinating’ and to take action to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries involving young drivers.
Addressing ministers directly, she said: ‘Whilst you are not considering Graduated Driving Licences, you have recognised that young people are disproportionately victims of tragic incidents on our roads. You have been exploring options to tackle the root causes of this for decades – It’s time for action – Not procrastination. Otherwise, more families will suffer the devastating loss of their loved ones.’
According to statistics from the Department for Transport, in 2023 around a fifth of all killed or seriously injured (KSI) casualties from collisions involving cars were in collisions which involved a young car driver, defined as someone between the ages of 17 to 24.
Young male car drivers aged 17 to 24 are four times as likely to be killed or seriously injured compared with all car drivers aged 25 or over.
A police notice in front of a damage hedgerow at the accident scene on the B4035
An analysis of statistics between 2019 and 2023 shows that almost half (48 per cent) of KSI casualties occurred on rural roads, compared to 42 per cent of casualties caught up in collisions involving drivers from other age groups.
And as with the Stretton-on-Fosse incident, more than half (53 per cent) of KSI casualties in younger driver collisions occurred away from a junction. The figure for other driver age groups was 47 per cent over the same five-year period.
But while a longer-term look at the statistics shows that since 2004, KSI casualties from a collision involving at least one younger car driver fell by 60 per cent, from 12,257 to 4,959, between 2002 and 2003 the figures rose, albeit by only 0.6 per cent.
Two months before the collision caused by Spencer, a lorry driver died in a collision with a school bus heading to Chipping Campden School on the same stretch of the B4035 between the north Cotswolds towns and Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire.
