Driving test celebrations end in death

A man aged 21 died with a 40-year-old woman when the Citroën Saxo in which they were travelling collided with a Ford Fiesta heading in the opposite direction. Two women, aged 28 and 35, died in the second vehicle.

Both cars were carrying four people when the crash happened close to a bridge over the Walsall Canal, in West Bromwich, at about 12.45am.

Two women in the Fiesta were killed instantly while the other victims died later in hospital. An 11-year-old girl, two women aged 28 and 36 and a 19-year-old man survived the crash. Len Williams, 65, a security guard at a nearby industrial estate, said: ‘I heard a massive bang and the sound of glass smashing. It was just a scene of utter devastation.

‘There was a small fire in the car when I arrived but it quickly took hold, there was no chance for anyone inside it.’

A bouquet laid at the crash site in memory of one of the women read: ‘Tracey – never to be forgotten. All our love, Anne, Scott and Meghan.’

Other flowers addressed to ‘my sister’ bore the message: ‘Tracy, you’re in our thoughts and in our dreams, this nightmare can’t be what it seems.’