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Teenage Audi driver, 17, killed pensioner just three months after passing test

Hanna Lewis had only been driving for three months when the crash happened (Wales News Service)
Hanna Lewis had only been driving for three months when the crash happened (Wales News Service)

A 17-year-old girl killed a pensioner in a head-on crash just three months after passing her test.

Newly-qualified Hanna Lewis ploughed into the car of 79-year-old Bryan Smithers on a sharp bend after a day at the beach with friends.

Mr Smithers died at the scene of the crash near the beach at Llansteffan, Carmarthenshire, in August last year. One of Lewis’ friends was also seriously injured.

Hanna Lewis has since turned 18 (Wales News service)
Hanna Lewis has since turned 18 (Wales News service)

Prosecutor Sian Vaughan said: “This is a tragic set of circumstances. She approached a bend on the wrong side of the road and it was a head-on collision.

“She had perhaps been distracted by friends having been to the beach earlier with them.”

Mr Smithers lived with his wife in the nearby village of Llanybri, and was an active member of the community as treasurer of the local hall committee.

Lewis, of Llandovery, admitted causing death by dangerous driving in her Audi A1.

Defence solicitor Gareth Walters said she was an “inexperienced” driver.

He said: “She passed her test in May and the collision was at the end of August.”

“With Miss Lewis’ inexperience and lack of knowledge of the road there is no doubt this was a tragic incident.”

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District Judge James said: “A lack of driving experience contributed, it seems, to the causality of the collision.”

Lewis, now 18, will face sentencing at Swansea Crown Court in October and was remanded on bail by magistrates at Llanelli.