M-way girls tragedy
Teen dies on M1 as friend stops to argue over petrol money
A TEENAGER was killed after her friend stopped on a motorway hard shoulder during an argument over petrol money and they were hit by another vehicle, a court heard yesterday.
Passenger Chloe Palmer, 19, was left with severe brain injuries and died in hospital six days after the collision on a girls’ night out.
Driver Christalla Amphlett is said to have turned the engine off, flung open her door and sat with her legs out as she and another passenger ‘bickered’ in the early hours.
Motorists had to swerve around the door and sound their horns as the car remained for 17 minutes on a partially lit section of the M1, it was claimed.
The driver of a pick-up truck that veered into Amphlett’s Renault Twingo has already admitted causing death by dangerous driving, the jury was told. But prosecutor Wayne Cleaver said Amphlett, 22, was also to blame. ‘Miss Amphlett had created dangerous conditions by deliberately stopping the car where she did,’ he told St Albans Crown Court. ‘Those conditions became increasingly dangerous the longer the car remained there.’
The four friends – who also included Ma isieO’ F lynn and Keziah Knight – went out clubbing in Watford on November 24, 2017.
Designated driver Amphlett, then 19, of Edgware, north London, was taking them home after they left a club at around 3.30am.
Mr Cleaver said: ‘ En route, Christalla and Maisie started arguing about something as trif l i ng as petrol money. Miss Amphlett had agreed to make a detour to St Albans to drop off
Maisie and was low on petrol. The passengers were drunk and were beginning to annoy the driver.
‘ Such was her irritation she pulled on to the hard shoulder of the M1 where she remained at a standstill for a few minutes.’
The journey resumed but the row continued and Amphlett stopped again near Bricket Wood, Hertfordshire, the court heard.
Mr Cleaver said the car did not have its hazard lights on, with Miss Knight getting out and sitting on a safety barrier while Amphlett remained in the front seat and the others in the back.
Miss Knight told the jury the argument in the car was getting more heated. ‘All of our voices were going over each other,’ she
‘Voices going over each other’
added She told how Miss Palmer sent her a text from the car saying Amphlett ‘was still fuming’.
She said: ‘I looked up to see what she was doing. As I looked up the truck came and went straight into the back of the car.’
The Renault was hit by an Isuzu driven by Bradley Lane who, Mr Cleaver said, had probably fallen asleep. Miss Palmer suffered multiple injuries and died a few days later at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, west London.
Amphlett and Miss O’Flynn also suffered significant injuries but survived. Amphlett denies causing death by dangerous driving. The case continues.