A teenage driver involved in a tragic crash that claimed the lives of three friends had made a promise to one of the victims’ fathers to drive carefully. The driver, identified as Spencer, had assured the father of Matilda, known as Tilly, of his cautious approach behind the wheel.
Edward Spencer, 19, made the pledge to Matilda Seccombe’s father before the collision, which happened just five weeks after he passed his test.
Before the fatal accident, 16-year-old Tilly had expressed her concerns about Spencer’s driving to her father. The collision occurred shortly after Tilly had voiced her worries about the way Spencer was handling the vehicle.
Not long before the accident, Tilly had begun carpooling with Spencer to and from school. However, the sudden loss of control by Spencer led to the Ford Fiesta crashing into an oncoming Fiat on a bend in the road.
The schoolgirl’s father, James, a parish councillor, had previously pleaded with Spencer, now 19, to take care when driving his young friends, but devastated Mr Seccombe told the Mail: ‘Clearly, he didn’t’.
Mr and Mrs Seccombe said they were still getting to know Tilly’s friends at the school, which she had joined the previous September for the sixth form, at the time of her death.
But they had met Spencer, who is from a farming family in nearby Newbold on Stour and whose mother owns a beauty salon, at a party Tilly hosted for friends at home.
Mr Seccombe said: ‘That was when we agreed to let her go in the car – something we now wish we never had done.
Edward Spencer, 19, pictured here outside Warwick Crown Court at a previous appearance, pleaded guilty to killing three of his friends in a Ford Fiesta crash in April 2023
Spencer made the pledge to Matilda Seccombe’s father before the collision, which happened just five weeks after he passed his test
The scene of the crash where Edward Spencer in a Ford Fiesta collided with a Fiat 500 carrying four people
‘I did say to (Spencer) face to face here in our living room to be careful when driving with people in the car and he promised me he would be. Clearly, he didn’t.’
Spencer was handed an interim driving ban on Monday at Warwick Crown Court after he admitted three counts of causing death by careless driving and three counts of causing serious injury by careless driving. He will be sentenced next month but Judge Andrew Lockhart KC warned the teenager he faced a custodial sentence.
Mr Seccombe and wife Juliet, who runs her own soft furnishing business, are part of a campaign calling for the introduction of ‘graduated’ driving licences for new road users which would carry restrictions such as a six-month ban on ferrying younger passengers.
The couple said Spencer, who was hospitalised as a result of the crash, appeared to ‘carry on as normal’ in the months that followed and even took a job at a timber yard a stone’s throw from their own home.
Following the crash in April 2023, which also claimed the lives of twin Harry Purcell, 17, and fellow sixth-former Frank Wormald, 16, and left three occupants of the Fiat seriously injured, another friend told police that Tilly had been worried about Spencer’s driving.
Mr Seccombe, 55, said: ‘Tilly hadn’t told us that Spencer was driving poorly because she knew that if she had, we would have put a stop to it and she would have had to go back to using the school bus.
‘But after the incident, a friend gave a statement to police to say that she was worried about Ed’s driving – she had confided this on the afternoon of her death.’
Mr Seccombe, from Preston on Stour, Warwickshire, said that messages were subsequently found on Tilly’s phone which ‘show there was obviously another (driving) incident that she was clearly cross about – to which she got a belligerent response (from Spencer).’
Harry Purcell, 17, was in the Ford Fiesta when Spencer crashed last year
Frank Wormald, 16, died in hospital a day after his friends, who were also fatally injured in the crash
He said his daughter had been paying Spencer petrol money for the journeys to and from Chipping Campden School just over the county border in Gloucestershire. The court heard Spencer – a keen rugby player – does not remember the circumstances around the April 2023 collision on the B4035 at Stretton-on-Fosse, Warwickshire.
Mrs Seccombe, 53, said: ‘What has been so shocking for us is his behaviour before and also after the crash.
‘He hasn’t shown remorse.’
Spencer appeared in court to admit his crimes on the day he had originally been due to stand trial.
Mrs Seccombe added: ‘Until yesterday, he has spent two years not facing up to what he has done. His legal team commissioned two accident investigation reports – one of which was legally aided – on top of the police crash investigation.‘
Mr Seccombe added: ‘It’s like the value of the lives of Tilly, Frank and Harry doesn’t mean anything to him.’
Spencer also pleaded guilty to three counts of causing serious injury by careless driving
The grieving father said it was ‘sickening’ to think that Spencer had possibly been driving himself to work at the timber yard which was ‘virtually within sight of Tilly’s bedroom window’.
His wife added: ‘It has caused us a great deal of anguish – we have to pass that yard every day.’
The couple are part of campaign group Forget Me Not Families Uniting – a group of more than 100 people who have lost loved ones to collisions involving young drivers. It is campaigning for the government to introduce graduated driving licences, which could include restrictions such as a ban on new drivers carrying younger passengers, a late-night driving curfew for the first few months after passing a driving test, or other measures such as a minimum learning period.
Mrs Seccombe said: ‘If there had been a six-month ban on carrying passengers for young drivers in place at the time (of Spencer’s fatal collision) then it would have saved Tilly’s life.
‘We would never have let Spencer driver Tilly back from a party but this was a journey to school and back.
‘The safety on rural roads is a big issue. The road outside our house has a 60mph limit. I would never drive along it at 60mph but some younger drivers might.
‘Graduated driving licences would help parents in our situation – if there was a law in place it would be easier for parents who could then point to that law and say ‘you can’t go in that car because it has not been six months since he (the driver) passed his test.
‘There is lots of support for this initiative and I can’t understand why the Government is not doing more about (introducing) it.’
Police notice at the scene of the fatal crash near Chipping Campden in The Cotswolds
But despite the growing clamour for new rules around young or inexperienced drivers, at a Westminster Hall debate on road safety in January, the government told bereaved families it had no plans to introduce greater restrictions.
Roads minister, Lilian Greenwood, acknowledged this was an area of ‘huge public concern’ and said she was committed to engaging as her department develops its policies.
‘Whilst we are not considering graduated licences, we absolutely recognise that young people are disproportionately victims of tragic collisions on our roads, and that is why we are exploring options to tackle the root causes of this without unfairly penalising young drivers,’ she said.
Just hours after Spencer appeared in court on Monday – entering and leaving building through a side exit – West Mercia Police announced a third teenager had died following a collision on a country road near Shifnal, Shropshire, on Friday night.
Simon Evans, 18, from Perton in Wolverhampton was pronounced dead at the scene while 17-year-old Jacob Holeman from Codsall, Staffordshire, died in hospital. A second 17-year-old, Jenson Bridges, from Brewood, Staffordshire, who was also travelling in the Audi A1, died as a result of his injuries on Sunday.
