Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Mum and three kids die in horror smash
Dad & 18-month-old girl ‘critical’
A MUM and three of her children were killed when their family car hit a lorry in a head-on crash.
Zoe Powell, 29, her daughters Phoebe, eight, Amelia, four, and her six-year-old son Simeon died instantly.
Her husband Josh, 30, and their 18-month-old daughter were rushed to hospital with serious injuries. They were last night “critical but stable” at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital.
The family’s silver Subaru collided with the HGV near a railway bridge on the A40 at 9.50pm on Monday.
Churchgoer Zoe, from Chinnor, Oxon, was a parenting writer who moved with her family from Sheffield in 2014.
She produced journals for new mothers and edited a blog. In an interview she spoke of her love of teaching bible studies at their local church.
The family moved recently after their home was damaged in a f ire. A neighbour said they were “lovely”.
Floral tributes were laid outside St
Andrew’s Church in Chinnor yesterday. One parishioner said: “It’s just so raw. The community are very upset.”
The A40 was reopened at lunchtime yesterday after crash investigators searched for clues to the tragedy. Police said the lorry driver, 56, suffered minor injuries and did not go to hospital.
A driver who saw the aftermath wrote on social media that it was like a “scene from hell”. Another motorist wrote on Facebook: “I’ve never seen anything so traumatising in my life.”
David Patchett, who lives on a narrowboat near the scene, called 999.
He said: “The car was in the middle of the road, it looked like it had been crumpled like a can. It was horrifying.”
Sgt Dominic Mahon, of Thames Valley Police, said the crash was an “absolute tragedy”.
He app ealed for witn e sse s or motorists with dashcam footage of the incident to come forward.