Roads Focus – Lived experience

Simon Evans died in March 2025 following a fatal collision in Shropshire. 

The 18-year-old, who had been a passenger in the vehicle, sadly died at the scene in Tong, near Shifnal. 

Two other teenagers, both aged 17 and travelling in the same vehicle, died in hospital due to their injuries. Another 17-year-old boy suffered life-changing injuries. 

Simon loved spending time with his family and friends, and enjoyed golf, fishing, pool and darts. His family described him as someone who “would do anything for anybody” and “always with a smile”. “He gave the best, biggest, warmest hugs,” they said. 

Speaking about the night of the incident, Simon’s mum and dad, Sue and Dave Evans, said: “Part of us all died with Simon that night. Our lives will never be the same. We are grieving for the son we have lost and are mourning for the future he will never have, and we will never see.” 

“His friends are all lost without him,” they added.

“It’s like a stone has been thrown into a lake and the ripples are reaching far and wide with no sign of stopping." 

The driver of the vehicle Simon had been travelling in had passed his driving test the day before the vehicle came off the road and hit a tree. 

Investigators said they could find no defects on the car or road surface that might have caused the crash and concluded a lack of driving experience and inappropriate speed were the cause. 

The coroner concluded the collision was “caused by the naive actions of a young, inexperienced, newly-qualified driver”. 

Simon’s family are keen to see the introduction of Graduated Driving Licences (GDLs), something PCC John Campion also fully supports.

GDLs would limit the number of passengers newly-qualified drivers can carry. The family also supports educational initiatives aimed at younger drivers. 

“We feel by sharing Simon’s story and contributing to initiatives such as this, it will save lives; who can argue with that?

"Young drivers deserve the right to be protected, to have the correct safeguards put in place,” they said. 

Emma Louise Young, from Hereford, died when her car came off the road and crashed into a tree just past the Verzons hotel near Ledbury, Herefordshire, in September 2010. She was 23. 

In March 2011, her family set up the ELY Memorial Fund to help bereaved families in Herefordshire who’ve lost a child aged between 17 and 25 in a collision on the county’s roads. 

The family also supports young people across the county to become safer drivers, through road safety education in the form of the ‘Young Driver Experience’. 

During face-to-face workshops, which the PCC helps fund through his road safety grant, young people learn about the dangers of driving under the influence, first aid at the roadside including how to perform CPR, passenger safety and the consequences of poor driver behaviour, as well as basic car mechanics. 

You can find out more about the ELY Memorial Fund and the Young Driver Experience that the PCC supports, by watching the video with Emma’s family using the link below. 

PCC supports Young Driver Experience delivered by ELY Memorial Fund 

Tom was 19 when he died on the 1st of June 2014. 

He had left early for work travelling from Withington along the A4103 Worcester Road, heading into Hereford, when he swerved to the left and went straight across the road to the right hitting a tree set within the layby.

Sadly, due to the injuries he sustained in the crash, Tom passed away in hospital, leaving his parents Diana and Nigel that fateful morning.  

Diana is a Trustee/Director of the ELY Memorial Fund and is an active campaigner for young people to be safer drivers.  

If one family can be saved from going through such devastation, Diana feels she hasn’t lost Tom in vain.