Memorial plan upsets grieving mother

The mother of a north Shropshire teenager who died in a road crash alongside two of her friends has branded a memorial car meeting "a disgrace".

Seonag Birch, mother of 18-year-old Kiera Smyth from Ellesmere, hit out at the event organised by the Shropshire Modified and Performance Car Club, which she said encouraged boy racer- style antics.

But the organiser of the meeting, Suzanne Lednor, said if she had known it was going to cause upset, she would never have organised the event.

The meeting saw more than 200 young people pay their respects in Oswestry's Somerfield and overflow car park on Sunday, exactly a year after the fatal crash on the A495 between Whittington and Welshampton which killed Kiera and friends Corrine Thomas, 24, from Ellesmere and driver Robert McLoughlin, 19.

Mrs Birch, 38, today said large gatherings of youngsters in cars would encourage dangerous driving, and was an inappropriate way to remember her daughter.

She issued a plea to young drivers to think before they speed, race or pull dangerous stunts in cars, and warned an accident could wreck the lives of several families.

Today she said: "In Ellesmere until 2.30am to 3am kids are driving like idiots and racing around, they are even driving backwards, but there's no point warning them, and the police say their hands are tied.

"I think warnings are not going to help, they should have their licences taken off them because they are destroying lives. It's fine if they want to wreck their own lives but if they kill others it's going to be more and more families that are torn apart. It's like a ripple in a pond."

Organiser Suzanne Lednor said everyone had their own way of remembering the friends.

She said she was friends with Corrine Thomas and the pair used to spend time in the Somerfield car park where the event was held.

She said the group was for sensible motorists who were passionate about cars, and boy racers were not welcome to join.

By Abigail Bates