County Durham Family Killed In Head On Crash

15 April 2013, 12:39 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

Five members of a family from Ouston near Chester-Le-Street have died after a head on crash with a lorry near Grimsby.

49 year old Angela Cockburn, died in the collision with her husband David, 48, daughters Carley Ann, 21, and Bethany, 18, and 23-month-old granddaughter Lacie Jade Stephenson.

The family, from the Chester-le-Street area of Durham, were travelling to a dance competition at Butlins holiday resort in Skegness, Lincolnshire, when the crash happened on Friday.

BELOW: Floral tributes left outside the shop owned by Angela Cockburn 


The family's Nissan Primera was in collision with a light goods vehicle at 12.30pm on April 12th, near the Oaklands Hotel on the A18 Grimsby Road, Laceby.

Three members of the family died at the scene and two others died later in the nearby Diana Princess of Wales Hospital.

The driver of the lorry is thought to have sustained minor injuries.

The family was travelling to Skegness with friends, who were in other cars. The Grimsby stretch of the A18 featured in a BBC television programme, Britain's Most Dangerous Roads, in 2011, which claimed it was 25 times more dangerous than the average British motorway with 20 crashes in the previous three years.

It was also found to be the UK's highest-risk stretch of road for car drivers in a nationwide survey by the Road Safety Foundation in 2010.

More than 66,000 people have joined a Facebook page set up in tribute to the family. Hundreds of people left their condolences on the R.I.P Cockburn Family page, which also features photographs of the family, including some of Carley and Bethany wearing dancing costumes and some of Bethany's daughter Lacie.

Carley and Bethany were members of a dance school in Washington, Tyne and Wear.

A dance teacher from the Durham area, who did not want to be named, said the dancing community had been left "distraught'' by the news of their deaths.

She said:
"It's just the shock of it happening on the way to this festival. Everyone's just totally distraught at the moment.''

Humberside Police said an investigation into the collision was still under way.

Operations Superintendent Tracy Bradley said:
"Police were called at around 12.30 hours on Friday 12th April following a serious collision which happened on the A18 near to the Oaklands Hotel in Laceby.

A Nissan Primera and a light goods vehicle were in collision, which resulted in the tragic death of all five people travelling in the Nissan at the time.

An investigation into this tragic incident is now under way and it is far too early to speculate as to what caused it.

Specially trained officers are supporting the relatives of those who sadly died.

Our thoughts go out to the friends and relatives of those who lost their lives at this sad time.''