Police wait to question nurse in death crash

THE driver of a car which ploughed into oncoming traffic, killing three of the seven boys travelling in the vehicle, is a nurse at the hospital where her son is fighting for his life, it emerged last night.

Angela Dublin, 45, whom police are waiting to question, was driving her son, Anton, 13, and six other boys to a restaurant to celebrate his birthday after an afternoon's paint-balling when her car crossed the central reservation of a busy dual carriageway in Oxford, resulting in a pile-up.

Three of her passengers - Josh Bartlett, Liam Hastings and Marshall Haynes, all 13 and from Oxford - were killed in the crash on the city's eastern ring road on Saturday evening.

Howard Hillsdon, a 21-year-old who was preparing to begin a teacher training course, was also killed when the woman's Citroen Xsara hit his car.

It emerged yesterday that the woman, named locally as Angela Dublin, is a nurse who had worked in the John Radcliffe Hospital where Anton is being treated. Three of his friends aged 12 to 13 were still critically ill in hospital yesterday. But police revealed that two of the surviving boys had shown signs of improvement.

Mrs Dublin, a mother of one, is in intensive care at the Great Western Hospital, in Swindon, Wiltshire, with "very severe" injuries to her neck, which could leave her paralysed.

Police are waiting to interview Mrs Dublin. They said that the number of people in the car - a five-seater - would form part of the investigation. But they were keeping an open mind as to why the Citroen Xsara left the southbound carriageway. The section of the city bypass where the tragedy happened is the only part of the road which has no crash barrier running along the central reservation.

Inspector Steve Bridges, of Thames Valley Police, would not be drawn on who was to blame. When asked whether overcrowding was being considered as a significant cause of the tragedy, he said: "In terms of a potential prosecution, it is much too early to say. There have been no arrests yet."

He said that the lack of barriers was one aspect of the investigation. But he added that there was much yet to establish and that officers were keen to speak to Mrs Dublin.

"When she wakes up, we will be able to ask her version of what's happened here," he said. "The most important thing for us is to piece together what happened to help the grieving process for the families."

Yesterday, a neighbour described Mrs Dublin as "the last person who would drive recklessly".

"She was a hard-working family woman," said Agatha Walsh.

"It was just unlucky; it was bloody unlucky. She's very usually safety-conscious. If you're a nurse you're going to be safety- conscious."

Josie Ind, a nurse and former colleague of Mrs Dublin, described her friend as a caring person. "Nothing is too much for her," she said.

Yesterday, hundreds of children and adults visited the scene of the tragedy, laying flowers along both sides of a path running next to the dual- carriageway, lighting candles and leaving cards and teddy bears.