Mother and daughter still in hospital after crash

A nine-year-old girl and her mother last night remained in hospital, days after a car crash in which her father and teenage brother were killed.

Ethan Sarkar, 14, and his father Derek, 46, from Birmingham, died when their Volkswagen Golf collided head-on with a Volvo on the A614 near East Cowick in East Yorkshire, on Saturday.

The driver of the Volvo, Sheila Stavert-Lee, 70, from Wigginton, near York, was also killed.

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Mr Sarkar’s wife, Karen, 43, and daughter, Abbie, were airlifted to Leeds General Infirmary after the collision, which happened on a bridge over a canal.

Yesterday, the hospital described Mrs Sarkar’s condition as “poorly” and said Abbie was “stable”.

Police have said it appeared Mrs Stavert-Lee’s car crossed onto the wrong side of the carriageway, into the path of the oncoming Golf.

The pensioner’s daughter told rescuers her mother had been on way to see her husband in Doncaster Prison.

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After the crash, Ethan’s best friend described him as a popular and hard-working boy who was “always smiling”.

Connor Meredith, also 14, said he had been devastated by news of Ethan’s death. He said he believed the family had been visiting relatives for a birthday celebration.

Dozens of tributes have been left on a Facebook site dedicated to the memory of Mr Sarkar and his son.

Debbie Hinchliffe, who lives a short distance from the bridge where the two cars collided, said she heard children screaming as she ran to the wreckage.

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Mrs Hinchliffe described her desperate attempts to save Mrs Stavert-Lee, whom she found unconscious in the Volvo, which had smoke pouring from its front.

She said she wanted to talk about the horrific scene she witnessed in the hope that something is done about the road which has seen a catalogue of crashes.

Yesterday, East Riding Council said it was not appropriate to comment on whether changes needed to be made to the road while a police investigation was continuing, but a spokesman said no other collisions had been recorded on the bridge in the last 10 years.

He said two accidents had been recorded on the southbound bridge approach in that period – a slight injury incident in 2009 and a more serious injury one last year.

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