8:10am Thursday 2nd July 2009
By Gina Marden
A WOMAN who died in a horror smash on the A127 has been named.
Michelle Williams, 37-year-old, was visiting relatives in Wickford and was travelling back to her home in North Wales when the crash happened early yesterday morning.
Her red Renault Megane struck the rear of a stationery lorry and caused traffic chaos.
The Polish lorry was parked in a layby on the carriageway between the A128 Brentwood and B186 Warley junctions.
Ms Williams suffered numerous injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Her three–year–old daughter was rushed to Basildon Hospital and has since been transferred to London’s Great Ormond Street hospital.
She remains in a critical, but stable condition.
The lorry driver was asleep in his cab and was uninjured.
The carriageway was closed between both junctions while police crash investigators combed the scene for clues.
The road closure saw motorists queuing back as far as Basildon as police diverted traffic off of the A127 at the A128 Brentwood junction.
One woman, a 28-year-old from Brentwood heading for work in Basildon, said: “I got caught up in it all, even though I was travelling on the opposite side of the road as everyone was stopping to rubberneck.
“The wreckage of the crash looked absolutely awful.
“It looked like the car had hit the corner of the lorry, which was embedded in the driver’s side of the windscreen. It’s unbelievable that anyone could have survived that crash, let alone a child.”
One lane of the carriageway re-opened at 8.30am, but the A127 did not fully reopen until around 11am.
Witnesses to the crash, which happened at 4.30am, can contact investigating officers at the Laindon Road Policing Unit on 0300 3334444 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.
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