Family in road crash tragedy
Apr 14 2008 The Journal
THREE members of the same family were last night named as being among the victims of a fatal road accident in Cumbria.
Agnes Graham, 52, died along with her daughter, Kathryn Graham, 22, and her sister, Mary Kennedy, 53, Cumbria Police said. A fourth woman, a 21-year-old cousin of Kathryn Graham, the driver, is fighting for her life in a Newcastle hospital.
They were in a red Ford Fiesta which came off the road and burst into flames after a crash involving two other cars around 8pm on Saturday on the A595 in Moota, near Cockermouth, Cumbria. Andrew Pattison, 23, from Whitehaven, who had been driving a blue Vauxhall Astra, was also killed.
Two men, also local to the area, escaped with minor injuries, after their Chrysler Neon also crashed.
Kathryn Graham, from Moor Row, near Whitehaven, was behind the wheel with her mother and aunt, both from Cleator Moor, Cumbria, in the back passenger seats.
Her cousin, who has not been named, was a front-seat passenger and is now in a critical condition in Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary.
The A595 between Bothel and Papcastle was closed for seven hours after the smash.
Moota is dissected by a long, straight stretch of the A595, one of the main routes between Carlisle and the south and west of the county.
A Cumbria Police control room supervisor said two of the cars had been heading northbound on the single carriageway road while the third was being driven southbound. The cause of the accident is not yet known but an investigation is under way.
A spokesman for Cumbria Police said: “Police would like to speak to anyone who witnessed the incident, or saw any of the vehicles being driven prior to the collision.
“Officers also urgently want to talk to a man who stopped at the scene and gave a brief witness statement before continuing with his journey. Officers have been unable to contact the man since the incident and would ask him to get in touch if he sees any media coverage as he may be a key witness.”
Station Officer Dave McDonald of Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service said two retained crews, from Cockermouth and Aspatria, attended the scene.
“We were called about 8pm,” he said. “When we got there, there were a number of vehicles involved, two of which were on fire. We used hose reels to put the fire out. The second crew used cutting gear to release the casualties.”
He said the vehicles had been taken away for inspection.
