Family mourn Hayley Durston killed in Crook smash

Aug 4 2009 by Neil McKay, The Journal

A FAMILY are mourning a “lovely” girl who was killed when the car in which she was travelling careered off the road.

Hayley Durston, 17, was a front seat passenger in the Rover 25 saloon driven by a youth, also 17, which demolished a three-metre stretch of fencing and flew over a small stream before smashing into trees and shrubs where it came to a halt.

Hayley, of Benbow Walk, Coundon, near Bishop Auckland, County Durham, sustained severe head injuries and was pronounced dead at Durham’s University Hospital.

She was described by her heartbroken family as “a lovely girl who was devoted to her family.”

They added: “She was at the beginning of her life and her death has devastated all who knew her.”

The driver from Stanhope sustained a broken right arm in the smash.