Woman dies in car accident after family appears in doc about sister’s crash

A United Kingdom woman was killed in a car crash over the weekend, just a few years after her family was featured in a documentary discussing her older sister’s fatal collision.

Eve Smith, 21, was one of five people discovered Monday in the wreckage of a single-car crash off the A48, a major road between Cardiff and Newport in Wales, the South Wales police said.

The group’s VW Tiguan is believed to have slipped off the road in St. Mellons early Saturday as they traveled home from a nightclub in Newport, the BBC reported. 

Smith and the four others were reported missing Saturday evening, and the car was found just after midnight on Monday.

Two other passengers– Darcy Ross, 21, and Rafel Jeanne, 24– were also pronounced dead. Sophie Russon, 20, and Shane Loughlin, 32, remain in critical condition.

For Smith’s family, the loss is compounded by that of her 19-year-old sister, Xana Doyle, who died in a car crash in Newport in 2015.

The driver in Doyle’s accident, Sakhawat Ali, survived the wreck and was later jailed for causing death by dangerous driving, drink-driving and aggravated vehicle taking, the BBC said.

Ali, who was 23 at the time of the accident, was also high on cocaine at the time of the crash.

Another surviving passenger, Shabaz Ali, 21, was imprisoned for “aggravated allowing to be carried involving a fatal accident,” the outlet said.

In 2020, Doyle and Smith’s mother, Emma, and her then-fiancé Tony were featured in the first episode of “This is Our Family,” a SkyTV documentary series profiling the extraordinary and mundane experiences of everyday people.

The cameras started following the couple just eighteen months after Xana was killed. In a four-star review of the episode, The Guardian recalls a poignant moment in which Emma admits that “‘If I could sacrifice my relationship [with Tony] to have my daughter back, I would.’”

In a statement to ITV News on Tuesday, Smith’s family requested privacy during this “extraordinarily difficult time.”

“We want to allow Gwent Police and South Wales Police the time and space to investigate the matter in a thorough and professional way and to enable the Independent Office for Police Conduct thereafter to come to their own conclusions,” the statement, which was shared by the family’s solicitor, continued.

Smith’s surviving sister, Lauren Doyle, also posted a Facebook update thanking the public for the “support and shares.” 

“I won’t be answering messages please allow us some time as a family to digest this terrible news,” she wrote.

As of Thursday, questions still lingered about how the group went undetected for almost 48 hours, despite the crash taking place off a major thoroughfare.

“I do think the police could have done a lot more,” friend Tamzin Samuels, 20, told The Guardian earlier this week.

Samuels said Smith “had a smile that could brighten a room.”

“[She was] a real feisty, independent girl but everyone loved her just as much,” she remembered.

Survivor Sophie Russon’s mother, Anna Certowicz, told The Sun that she “can’t recognize” her daughter after she was suspended inside the car for almost two days.

Russon, a bank worker, suffered a fractured skull and brain bleeding, as well as a broken neck and spine, Certowicz said.

“There’s no words to describe [what happened]. I can’t imagine how long it’s going to take for her to get over this. She’s going to need a lot of support,” the concerned parent said.