Dad and 2 children die in car crash

A BRITISH father and his two young children were killed in a road accident in France after it is thought he fell asleep at the wheel.

John Crompton, 31, was driving his family near Dijon early yesterday morning when the family’s Nissan careered off the motorway and through a safety barrier before smashing into a bridge pillar.

Emergency services reportedly pulled his partner Makayla Lund, 25, from the wreckage with only minor injuries, while their three-year-old son Kyle was in a critical condition last night.

It is understood Mr Crompton’s other son Morgan, 12, and four-yearold daughter Evie-Lily were thrown from the car and died instantly. Their father died of a cardiac arrest as he lay trapped in the wreckage.

With child seats and water bottles scattered across the road, the car was hardly recognisable yesterday as it lay mangled on its side among the debris with the roof torn off.

Mr Crompton is understood to have been based in Italy but is registered as living at a £50,000 terraced house in Hartlepool, Co Durham.

The devoted family man was last night described by friends a ‘very talented and well liked man’. His partner Makayla describes herself on Facebook as a ‘full-time mummy’.

The family were thought to be on holiday as they headed south on the A39 motorway to Bourg-en-Bresse. With the weather and road conditions good and no other vehicles involved, police said they would focus on the idea that the driver lost control.

Senior regional official Georges Bos said: ‘The crash may have been due to the driver falling asleep at the wheel or perhaps he was distracted and veered to the right.’

Gendarme Captain Gilles Quintaine told the Telegraph: ‘We don’t know how long the father had been driving for, whether he had been at the wheel all night or whether he had just got on the road.’

Witnesses said the driver lost control near Savigny-en-Revermont, 50 miles south of Dijon, at around 7am.

The motorway was shut for several hours and two emergency helicopters were scrambled as rescue workers tried to help the parents, who were both trapped in the car.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘We are providing assistance following a road traffic accident in France in which three British nationals have sadly died and two others have been hospitalised. We are working closely with local authorities and supporting the families at this difficult time.’

‘Falling asleep at the wheel’