Vandal ‘caused fatal crash’
A crash which claimed the life of a 32-year-old woman was caused by vandalism to one of the tyres on her car, police said.
Detectives are now treating the death of pharmacist Joanna Smith as manslaughter after forensic tests showed a tyre on her Honda Jazz had been punctured deliberately.
Mrs Smith, from Northampton, is thought to have been unaware of the vandalism when she set off for work in Irchester on the morning of April 10. The victim, originally from Poznan in Poland, was pronounced dead on the eastbound A45 near Earls Barton.