Barnsley 11-year-old girl orphaned in A61 car crash tragedy cheated death by skipping family walk, says friend
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Visit Shots! now[1]A young girl whose parents and two sisters died in a horror crash cheated death because she opted against going on a family walk.
Paul Hepple, aged 37, from Barnsley[2], said the 11-year-old had asked to stay with his daughter, who she had been playing with, instead of going for a family walk, on the day disaster struck.
Paul got a call from the girl’s mum, Shannen Morgan, earlier in the day on Sunday, July 21, and agreed to let the youngster stay.
The father-of-four said: “We were watching [her], as she’s best mates with our daughter. She was with our daughter having fun.
“And on [the family’s] way home, that’s when the accident happened.”
Shannen Morgan, Shane Roller and their two children Lillie and Rubie have been named by the police as the victims of the crash | West Yorkshire Police
They were all settling down for an evening meal when they heard her parents[3], Shannen Morgan, 30, and Shane Roller, 33, and siblings, Lillie and Rubie, aged four and nine, had died.
“No one knew what happened and then the news came slowly, we saw a post on Facebook[4] that there was an incident,” said Paul
“No one is prepared for it. No one is ready for anything like this to happen.”
The family’s Ford Focus was involved in a collision with a motorbike on the A61 near Wakefield[5] and Barnsley.
Pictures taken yesterday (July 22) near a police cordon show floral tributes, as police investigate the crash on the A61 Barnsley Road. | James Hardisty
A male motorcyclist[6] and a female pillion passenger were also confirmed to have passed away at the scene, but police[7] are not yet in a position to name them.
Paul added: “It’s awful, obviously - just the way it happened more than anything and the way she has been left on her own. She’s got very little family left.
He added: “My opinion is we’ll look after [her] if we have to – it’ll not come down to that – but we’ve said to the whole family that our door is open for them and her.”
“My girlfriend was brought up with [the 11-year-old girl’s] mother, like all their lives, they’ve known each other.
“She can come anytime she likes, and we’ll do anything she likes, and we’ll do anything we can to help her. Everyone loves her, everyone loved all the family.”
Jamie Phillips, aged 31, said he believed the family could have only been on the road 'for a matter of minutes' before the collision as they lived nearby.
Flower left at the scene on the A61 Wakefield Road between Wakefield and Barnsley. | SWNS
He said the community[8] had been left devastated by the death of the family and that Shane, who worked part-time as a delivery driver for a local takeaway[9], was popular in the area.
Speaking as he lay flowers at the scene, Jamie said: “There’s a poor little girl that’s been left with no family. It’s a shock for us all.
"They were a lovely family. Bright and cheerful. Just to be travelling down the road and then for something like this to happen, it’s devastating.”