Pictured for the first time, girl of five orphaned in Bank Holiday lorry crash
THIS is the first picture of the five- year- old girl orphaned in Britain’s worst road crash for 25 years.
Shravathi Ramasubramanian was trapped in the wreckage for more than an hour before firemen were able to free her.
Her father Karthikeyan and mother Lavanya were among eight killed when the minibus was flattened by two lorries on the M1 in the early hours of Saturday. Shravathi suffered critical injuries and remains in intensive care.
However her relatives, some of whom have flown from India to be by her bedside at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, say she is responding well to treatment.
From her home in Chennai, eastern India, her grandmother Malti Lakshmi said yesterday: ‘My son Nand Kumar and two other relatives reached England [on Tuesday night].
‘Nand told us Shravathi is out of danger but she is heavily sedated as the wounds are still fresh.
‘We do not know the future plan yet. We are yet to believe that our daughter and son-in-law are no more. We will see where Shravathi will live. Our priority at the moment is her life.
‘We only hope that she heals quickly. Once she heals completely then we will sit and discuss.’ Shravathi had moved with her parents from India to Nottingham in January.
Her father was among three workers at IT firm Wipro killed. Friends of Mrs Ramasubramanian said she had been looking forward to her new life in the UK and regularly posted Facebook pictures of the family enjoying trips around the country.
The family of three were part of a group of 11 travelling to London to join a coach tour of Europe when they crashed with two lorries near Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, at 3.15am on Saturday.
The ABC Travel minibus, driving southbound, had swerved to avoid a lorry which was stationary in the inside lane but hit another truck in the middle lane.
Two women and six men – including the minibus driver Cyriac Joseph, 52 – died and four, Shravathi among them, were seriously injured in the crash.
Lorry driver Ryszard Masierak, 31, of Evesham, appeared in court on Monday charged with causing death by dangerous driving and being over the legal alcohol limit.
He was remanded in custody to appear at Aylesbury Crown Court next month. A second lorry driver, David Wagstaff, 53, of Stoke- onTrent, has also been charged over the crash and will appear in court next week.