Braintree: Injured teenager speaks of crash (From Braintree and Witham Times)

Braintree: Injured teenager speaks of crash

10:24am Wednesday 8th July 2009

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A teenager who survived a crash which killed one of her friends and left the other critically ill has said how she wishes she could “turn back time.”

Danielle Stevens of Chelmer Road, Braintree, was the back-seat passenger of the red Rover 100 driven by Charmaine Phillips, 17, of Appletree Walk, Braintree, who died at the scene.

The front-seat passenger, former Braintree and Bocking Carnival queen Romaine Lee, 17, of Mountbatten Road, Braintree, was in a critical condition at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford.

In the accident involving a white Ford Ranger Miss Stevens, 19, suffered a broken pelvis, collar bone, shoulder blade and a cut to her head.

After returning home from hospital last week she told The Braintree and Witham Times that she still could not believe what happened on the night of June 22.

She said: “I just wish I could change things. I wish we weren’t going to McDonald’s. It was horrible.

“When my friend told me what happened I didn’t know whether to believe her or not.

”I just cannot remember what happened but I want to. I want to know whether Charmaine knew it was coming. I wish she was here.”

She “just hoped” Miss Lee would pull through, she added.

She had not known the teenagers for long, she said, but in a short space of time they had grown close.

The former Alec Hunter Humanities College student is now resting at home following her ordeal.

Miss Stevens, who lives with her mother Dawn, an escort at Edith Borthwick School in Bocking, and father Robert, a window fitter, said: “They have just been looking after me. I have just been trying not to talk about it. It’s too soon.”

She added: “Lots of people have been really nice. My boyfriend has been with me every single day. He was with me every day at the hospital.”

Boyfriend Graham Thompson, 23, of Buckwoods Road, Braintree, said he went straight to the hospital when he got the call about the accident.

He said: “I didn’t know what to think to be honest. It didn’t feel real.”

Miss Stevens was due to start work at Klass clothes shop at Freeport Shopping Village last week, but that is currently on hold.

“I try to rush things but the doctors say take it easy, rest. I want to go out,” she said.

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