By Douglas Walker, Deadline Press & Picture Agency
A SEVEN-month-old baby was killed when the car she was travelling in smashed into an oncoming lorry.
Ella Grace Leith was being driven in a friend of the family’s vehicle when the horror crash happened just yards from their Borders home.
After clipping a horsebox van, the car veered across the road narrowly missing another vehicle before colliding with the lorry. The driver of the car and the three passengers escaped without serious injury.
The accident happened at 5.25pm on Tuesday on the A697 road at the south end of the family’s home town Greenlaw.
Little Ella waswith her mother Emma Tibbets, 29, and four-year-old brother. The car was being driven by an unnamed, male family friend, 31. The car clipped an oncoming Leyland Daf Horsebox, which knocked it narrowly past a Mitsubishi L200.
Out of control, the Astra then veered fatally into an approaching Mercedes Sprinter lorry. Ella, who was strapped into a baby seat in the front, was killed instantly.
The driver and two passengers were taken to Borders General Hospital with minor injuries but were released later that evening. The other people involved in the incident were uninjured.
The road was closed for nine hours overnight while the police carried out their investigations. Withing hours of the tragedy a collection of soft toys and flowers were left at the scene, just a two minute walk from the family home.
One tribute attached to a bunny read: “One so sweet and innocent, in God’s loving hands always’. Another read: ‘Baby Ella, we will miss your beautiful brown eyes’.
Police are appealing for witnesses to the accident. A report has been sent to the Procurator Fiscal. Last night Ella’s relatives were too upset to comment.
