The mum of a young woman who survived in the wreckage of a horror crash for 48-hours before the car was discovered has slammed police handling of the case.
Five pals were involved in the incident and three sadly lost their lives after their Volkswagen Tiguan crashed into trees off the A48 in Cardiff. Police found the wreckage on March 6, two days after the incident.
Sophie Russon, 20, survived the tragedy and is now recovering after her best friends Darcy Ross, 21, and Eve Smith, 20, were found dead along with driver Rafel Jeanne, 24, at the scene. Shane Loughlin, 32, is fighting life-threatening injuries.
Sophie's mum, Anna Certowicz, has now spoken to the Mirror in her first interview since the horrific incident as she hit out at the police’s “appalling” handling of the case and their treatment of victims’ families.
The 40-year-old, who is nursing her daughter back to health, believes officers were far too casual and ignored their fears when they reported the pals missing.
She said: “If they got there sooner, we don’t know, but maybe they could have survived.
“The police did not do enough – it wasn’t until people started posting on social media that they paid us any attention. They had calls from me, Sophie’s dad and all the other families, but they were very blasé and said they’re probably out partying.”
Sophie had bruising on her brain and a build-up of fluid, which was drained in 14-hour surgery, after she was discovered semi-conscious outside the wrecked VW Tiguan.
She is now in a back brace to ensure her bones set correctly after suffering a broken arm and leg fractures.
Anna says she is now doing well after being moved to a specialist rehab unit two weeks ago.
Sophie became best friends with Eve and Darcy on their first day of infant school and the trio were inseparable. She is too devastated to discuss what happened but said: “I will be sad the rest of my life.”
Anna, also mum to Georgia, 24, and Milly, 13, said she had searched day and night for Sophie.
She added: “There were 100 of us, knocking on doors, searching country lanes with torches – we were desperate.”
Sophie was meant to stay over at Georgia’s house and had only planned to go for a few drinks.
Anna said: “My girls are so close – they spend all their time together and are always talking on Snapchat, so when the messages stopped, we knew something bad had happened. Sophie is good as gold. She’s always messaging to let us know she’s OK.”
Sophie, who works in the fraud team at Lloyds, did not turn up for work on the Sunday – something Anna said “would never happen”.
“I explained to the police this was just not Sophie,” she said. “She takes her job extremely seriously.”
On Saturday March 4, the car crashed a 2.03am. Gwent Police received three missing person reports that day, at 7.34pm, 7.43pm and 9.32pm.
Another report was made to South Wales Police at 5.37pm on the Sunday.
At 11.40pm that night, a police helicopter was requested and officers later discovered the car in a wooded area off the A48 at 12.15am on Monday, March 6.
Anna said families were gathered on the road, in front of 100 onlookers, to be told the devastating news after being left to wait at the scene for over two hours with no updates.
She said: “They didn’t section anything off or give the families somewhere private – it was appalling. There was nobody to reassure us, no family liaison officer.”
Sophie had just enjoyed her first holiday abroad with Eve and the pals had Beyonce and Chris Brown tickets booked. Anna said: “Not having her friends around will hit Sophie the hardest.”
Last week, hundreds turned out to pay their respects to Darcy and Sophie was able to leave the hospital for a few hours to say goodbye.
Anna said: “I think it’s something she had to do. She survived and her two best friends didn’t.”
There is a GoFundMe page for Eve’s funeral, which is on Friday.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct is probing Gwent Police’s handling of the crash. Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hobrough said: “We understand how distressing it is when a loved one goes missing and are aware of concerns raised around police actions.”
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