Kentish Express Ashford & District
Dad: My mission to make sure people do not forget Danyl
The family of a young man killed in a car crash have spoken of keeping his memory alive.
Danyl Ponsford, 26, died in Somerset Road, Ashford, a year ago. On Saturday, family and friends unveiled a bench in his memory close to the scene.
His father, Gary Ponsford, said: “This means a lot to me because this is where it happened. This was the last place I saw Danyl.
“It is a legacy, together with the other things we have done.
“Danyl was very popular and it is my mission to make sure people do not forget him.
“People get on with their lives but family and close friends are still trying to come to terms with it.
“I am trying to keep his memory going.”
Family and friends paid for the bench, which has the inscription: “In loving memory of Danyl
‘People get on with their lives but family and close friends are still trying to come to terms with it’
Ponsford. 01 April 1987 to 30 September 2013. No longer with us. But always in our hearts.”
Football-mad Danyl was an Arsenal fan and club scarves and shirts, which were tied to a tree on the corner of Somerset Road and Station Road after the crash, are still there.
Danyl, a former pupil of The Norton Knatchbull School, was manager at Xpress Games in Ashford town centre.
He died when a silver Volkswagen Golf and his red Toyota Celica collided outside Domino’s Pizza at about 11pm on September 30 last year.
Since then, the Danyl Ponsford Foundation has been formed. It sponsors the senior first team football kit at Norton Knatchbull and has provided some sports equipment.
The Lolzors Football Club has been formed, made up of 30 of Danyl’s former team-mates, close friends and family members, and there is an annual six-a-side football match in his memory.
Mr Ponsford said: “We are well on our way to setting up a football academy for young children, which is something Danyl would have loved. It is quite a legacy.”
Junel Miah, of Magazine Road, Ashford, has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving and causing death while driving without insurance in connection with the incident in which Danyl died. A provisional trial date has been set for Monday, November 24.