Families remember young victims of car crashes

The families carried images of loved ones killed in car crashes

The family of a 19-year-old killed in a car crash have joined other bereaved relatives remembering young people who have died on the roads.

Sammy Phillips was a passenger in a BMW being driven by a 22-year-old friend when it hit a tree on the A4130 near Bix in Oxfordshire in 2023, killing both.

His brother said sharing experiences with other families had been "emotional".

The families said graduated driving licensing would improve safety.

Government figures show male drivers under the age of 25 are four times more likely than older drivers to be killed or seriously injured.

Countries including Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as well as many US states, have already introduced restrictions on night time driving and the number of similarly aged passengers a young driver can carry in a car.

Sammy Phillips died in a crash near Bix, Oxfordshire, in February 2023

Bereaved UK families formed a campaigning group, Forget-me-not Families Uniting, calling for a change in the law to introduce graduated driving licences that would place restrictions on newly qualified drivers.

The families met - many for the first time - at a recent event at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.

Sammy's brother Jamie Morris and his mother Justine, who are both BBC employees, attended the gathering.

"It was really tough and it really hits home - you see how many other families talking about the experiences they've had of losing a loved one, and you can't help remind yourself of those days when you found out yourself," said Mr Morris.

"It's really raw, it's really, really sad."

Mr Morris fronted BBC documentary Drive Fast Die Young, which was about the death of his brother, earlier this year.

Jamie Morris joined the gathering at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire

RoadPeace is one of more than 70 groups backing graduated driving licensing.

Rebecca Morris, the group's communications manager, said: "Certainly, for a long time, people have felt alone, unheard, ignored.

"They are asking for change because they now know graduated driving licencing, had it been in place, would have saved their child's life.

"We just hope there is going to be one day, and its going to be soon, that graduated driving licencing will be introduced in the UK."

Earlier this year, the Department for Transport said there were no plans to introduce graduated driving licences.

But it said it had commissioned research to better support new drivers and that its Think! campaign was specifically targeted at younger motorists.