Adrian Smith has described the heartbreaking moment he realised his daughter Ella, 21, had died at the scene of a crash he was attending
A firefighter found out his 21-year-old daughter had been killed in a crash after recognising a tattoo on her leg as she was pulled from a car.
Adrian Smith, 49, was responding to a 999 call when he discovered Ella Smith was being covered over with a blanket near the wreckage of her Ford Ka.
The care home worker died in a devastating head-on smash caused by two learner drivers who were racing each other on the B4341 near Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, in June 2021.
Jago Clarke and mum-of-one Emma Price, both 21, were jailed for 10 years after Ella’s heartbroken dad described the gut-wrenching moment he realised his daughter was involved.
Adrian was the duty officer for the fire service when he was called to the collision with multiple people trapped.
It was the type of incident he had ‘attended many times’ in his career, he said.
But this one would change his life forever.
Ella Smith, who died in the crash, pictured with her dad Adrian and mum Maria
‘Once in attendance I carried out a scene assessment and I moved around one of the vehicles and was stood between the two involved,’ he said in an emotional victim statement as he faced Price and Clarke in court.
‘I noticed a female being pulled clear of one of them, I noticed a tattoo on her leg and immediately recognised it as Ella’s.
‘I turned to the car and checked the registration – it was Ella’s. As I looked back they were pulling a blanket over Ella.’
Adrian said that ‘at that moment, although surrounded by many people I was the loneliest man alive’.
‘I knew something nobody else did, I knew my oldest daughter was dead,’ he said.
Jago Clarke and mum-of-one Emma Price have been jailed for causing the crash that killed Ella Smith, pictured (Picture: Wales News Service)
The father said he was ‘haunted’ by not being able to tell his wife over the phone that their daughter was dead.
He said he would ‘never forgive’ Clarke or Price for their ‘arrogance and appetite for self-preservation’ by not pleading guilty.
‘I will never understand why you did what you did and this will eat away at me for the rest of my life,’ he said.
Swansea Crown Court heard how Adrian was forced to take early retirement from his firefighter role and his wife Maria has had to leave her job in the NHS.
‘The loss is consuming me and my grief has become the new me,’ he said.
‘The father who planned his daughter’s funeral rather than her wedding, the father who carried a coffin rather than walk her down the aisle, the father who read an eulogy rather than the father-of-the-bride speech.’
Clarke and Price were spotted driving ‘competitively’ just moments before the horrific crash.
Prosecutor Jim Davis said Ella had arrived at the beach to collect Clarke after he had spent the day at the seaside with Price and friends.
Clarke was seen sipping from a bottle of Budweiser and mixing vodka and Sourz before he got into the driver’s seat of Ella’s car.
The court heard friend Luis Heathfield warned Clarke not to drive after he was ‘bragging’ about driving and being ‘cocky’.
Mr Heathfield said he shouted ‘don’t be a f****** idiot’ when he saw Clarke get into the driver’s seat while Ella climbed into the passenger side.
Clarke then drove away from the beach in Broad Haven, Pembrokeshire, along with Price driving a Citroen C1.
Mr Davis said: ‘Neither defendant should have been driving either vehicle at the time, as both only held provisional licences and were not being supervised.
‘It seems that Jago Clarke was bragging to everyone that he was going to drive Ella’s car and overtake everyone.’
Clarke then lost control of a white Ford Ka and crashed into an oncoming car.
Price’s blue Citroen was not involved in the crash – but she was found to be equally responsible due to her driving just moments earlier.
One witness said she saw the woman driver running at the scene saying: ‘I’m going to prison, they’re sending me to prison.’
The court heard the friends had been on a day out at the beach before the fatal crash.
Driver Rowan Fair, who was in the oncoming Seat, said he saw two cars ‘side by side’ heading in his direction and travelling ‘very fast’.
He said he saw the white car hit the hedge and ‘fly back out’ across the road into his path – leaving no time to react.
Mr Fair’s partner Daisy Buck was a passenger in the car and she was left seriously injured in the crash.
The court heard Ella suffered catastrophic injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Clarke, of Hubberston, Milford Haven, was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Price, of Holloway, Haverfordwest, was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving, causing death by driving while unlicensed and uninsured and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Judge Paul Thomas said Price was a mother-of-one and pregnant with her second child but told her ‘you lied through your teeth’ during the trial and said Clarke had ‘tried to act the big man’.
He told them: ‘When you two decided to have a race in your cars through the country roads of Pembrokeshire on the way back from the beach at speeds above 70mph when you were unqualified and inexperienced drivers, I do not suppose you ever contemplated the decision to do so would tragically end one young woman’s life and have a devastating calamitous impact on so many other people.
‘But you should have realised just that – cars kill especially when driven by young people showing off as you two were with no thought to the risk that you put other people at.
‘That day, through the circumstances you created an accident was almost inevitable.
‘Ella Smith had everything to live for, she was only 21 with a life full of promise and love with even more promise and love ahead of her.’
The pair were jailed for 10 years and banned from driving for a further six years.
He recognised his daughter by a tattoo on her leg.
