A DAD whose 19-year-old daughter died in a car crash has told a court in Oxford he has spent three years fighting for justice for ‘his girl’.
Ferne Campbell died on September 5, 2016, after her best friend’s car crashed on the A361 near Williamscot, Banbury.
Ms Campbell and Lydia Rawlings were going shopping in Banbury for clothes for their holiday planned for a week later when Ms Rawlings' silver Toyota Yaris left the road and hit a tree in the morning.
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Ms Campbell, an apprentice hairdresser who was six weeks away from her 20th birthday, was rushed to the John Radcliffe Hospital where she died that evening.
Her dad Peter told Oxford Coroner’s Court today, as an inquest began into her death, how he had spent the past three years pushing the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to take legal action in the case to get justice for his daughter to no avail.
He said: "A crash is man-made.
"Lydia went off too fast and drove off the road.
"That’s her driving, the conditions and down to experience. It’s nothing to do with the road – the road is fine.
"The statistics state that you have a chance of five in 5.3 million of coming off that road."
Despite that, he told the court, the CPS had decided not to take action, which is why an inquest had been allowed to proceed.
He said: “The CPS have absolutely shafted us. We have fought... it's about truth and justice.
“Harry Dunn’s parent’s live only around the corner from us and they have this all to come."
Mr Campbell also told the court how they previously lived close to Lydia Rawlings and had moved house to avoid seeing her.
He said: "We didn’t want to bump into her at the shop and things and put ourselves and her in that position.
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“We have lost our daughter and our lives and we won't stop fighting.
“If police won’t help us, we will have to find the answer ourselves.”
He said if that meant selling up and moving into a ‘cardboard box’ to pay for legal fees he would do it.
He added: “Everybody who loses a child feels the same. We want justice.
“We don’t have any other children and we don’t have our business any more. We don’t want to find blame, we want to find justice for our girl.”
Explaining the CPS decision not to pursue a prosecution, Coroner Rosamund Rhodes said of Lydia Rawlings: “She was going round the bend too fast for her experience, that in itself is not a criminal offence.
“You weren’t there when the accident happened, you don’t know.”
The inquest has now been split into two parts – the first part will investigate the facts of the road traffic accident, the second – in the new year – will look at the coordination of emergency services.
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