Tributes to a ‘perfect man’
Road death sparks calls to switch street lights back on
TRIBUTES have been paid to an Uxbridge man who was hit by a car in an Essex street where the lighting was turned off.
Nick Sherwood, 25, was struck by an Audi A4 in St Andrews Avenue, in Colchester, at around 3.45am on Sunday, February 8.
Ambulance crews attended, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Dozens of floral tributes have been left at the roadside, along with a message written by Mr Sherwood’s girlfriend of three-and-a-half years, Lilie Smyth, 22, who is from Colchester.
It read, in part: “You are my best friend, my boyfriend and my whole world. I would have done anything to make you happy. I would give the world to have you back just for one day.
“You were the most perfect person to ever walk on this earth, and perhaps that’s why you were taken away from us, no one can be lucky enough to have you forever.”
Mr Sherwood, who worked as an electrician for Balfour Beatty and supported Wycombe Wanderers FC, had been out for a meal and then drinks before getting lost on his way back to Wivenhoe.
His mother, Heidi, said the family was ‘absolutely devastated and brokenhearted at having lost our lovely, fun-loving son’.
She is campaigning for Essex County Council to change its cost-saving policy of turning off streetlights between midnight and 5am.
She said: “Please help to stop another family from suffering in this way.
“You simply must put the street lights back on. What is more important, a few pounds or people’s lives?”
The road was closed for nearly five hours after the accident, while police carried out forensic examinations.
The driver, a 29-yearold man from Crawley, in Sussex, is helping police with their inquiries. He was not injured and has not been arrested.
Essex Police officers are appealing for anyone with information to call 101, or email collisionappeal@essex.pnn.police.uk.
Mr Sherwood’s family want residents to sign a petition calling for the street lights to be kept on at night.
To sign, visit http:// www.bobrussell.org.uk/ switch_our_street_lights_ back_on_petition
Alternatively, visit http://www.petitionbuzz. com/petitions/ switchstreetlightson