A bank worker who survived a fatal crash in Cardiff that left one man and two women dead was left suspended in the wreckage and is ‘unrecognisable’ from her injuries, her mother said.
Trainee bank manager Sophie Russon, 20, is sedated in hospital after going through life-saving surgery after fracturing her skull in the crash, which led to a bleed on her brain.
Ms Russon’s mother Anna Certowicz, 41, is staying at her daughter’s bedside and criticised Police searches alleging that ‘policemen on foot had searched the area but didn’t find anything’ prior to the discovery of the wreckage.
Anna, from Newport, said ‘you can’t recognise’ her daughter Sophie because of her injuries.
She said her daughter was ‘cold, scared stiff, not able to reach her mobile phone’ while in the crashed car.
Sophie Russon, 20, is sedated in hospital after going through life-saving surgery after fracturing her skull in the crash, which led to a bleed on her brain
Anna Certowicz, 42, (pictured with Ms Russon, right) believes her daughter and her two friends met Mr Jeanne and Mr Loughlin for the first time on the night of the tragedy
Pictured: The scene in the St Mellons area of Cardiff where the car was found
Eve Smith, 21, (pictured) whose sister Xana was killed by a drug and drink driver in 2015, died in the crash
Ms Smith was good friends with Darcy Ross and Sophie Russon (right)
Mr Jeanne partying on Friday night in Newport with Darcy Ross, 21, who was also killed
Best friends Eve Smith, 21, Darcy Ross, 21, and Sophie Russon, 20, met Rafel Jeanne, 24, and Shane Loughlin, 32, at a social club in Newport
When the five were found at the side of the busy A48, on the outskirts of Cardiff shortly after midnight on Monday, it was 46 hours after they had last been seen.
Anna told The Sun: ‘She had panic attacks throughout the night when she came round so they sedated her.
‘She’s in shock and has a lot of injuries.’
Earlier today Lewis Pace, 26, who found the car involved in the crash, slammed police for not acting quickly enough – as he revealed he was best friends with one of the victims.
Lewis Pace, 26, and his father Matthew, 45, were searching for the missing group of five when they Spotted Tyre Tracks across the grass at a roundabout.
They investigated and found the white Volkswagen Tiguan wedged behind trees.
Lewis was close friends with Rafel Jeanne, 24, who was killed with Darcy Ross, 21, and Eve Smith, 21.
The other passengers, Shane Loughlin, 32, and Sophie Russon, 20, spent nearly two days critically injured alongside their dead friends and are in hospital.
Today Lewis told Sky News: ‘As soon as they were reported missing they should have been out there looking for them, at the end of the day they were missing so there should have been a search there and then.
Lewis Pace, 26, and his father Matthew, 45, were searching for the missing group of friends in Cardiff when they spotted tyre tracks across grass at a roundabout
Lewis was best friends with Rafel Jeanne, one of three people who died in the crash
‘Obviously I didn’t think anything of it until I saw he was reported missing, I saw comments on Facebook that the police were not taking it seriously, obviously they definitely should have been.’
The father and son had only been looking for 15 minutes when they came across the car, according to The Sun.
Lewis said police were searching ‘literally next’ to where the vehicle was, so he is unsure why it was not found sooner.
‘When I saw them skid marks, obviously I was praying that it was nothing to do with it and it turns out it was, but the police were searching literally next to where we found it and anyway the helicopter was in the sky, so I don’t know how it wasn’t found quicker,’ he said.
‘I was just praying it wasn’t, of course, I was just praying it wasn’t them.’
Lewis said Mr Jeanne was a ‘very good kid’ adding: ‘We were very very close, we did most things together.
‘I’m devastated. I can’t cope, I can’t eat. It’s just devastating. He’s just hilarious, honestly the best way to describe him is just funny, like he’s always up for a laugh. I just miss him already.’
His father Matthew, 46, who lives two miles from the crash site in Pontprennau, Cardiff, said: ‘The minute they were reported missing, surely they should have been looking, searching.
‘Especially when witnesses saw five people in the car and there’s no contact off any of them, I thought they’d have been looking all day Saturday.’
Matthew said he and Lewis pulled up at the roundabout in St Mellons, Cardiff, after spotting the tyre marks leading to a wooded area.
He said a policewoman arrived ‘about a minute later’ and Matthew pointed her towards a thicket of trees that has since been cut away with saws.
He said: ‘I pulled up, I was in the field, in the woods and then she pulled up behind me,’ he said.
‘She was asking why I was there, and I said: ‘There’s all tyre marks here’ and then her colleague came out, looked at the tyre marks and they got the helicopter to search in this bush and that’s when it was confirmed it was there.’
Ms Certowicz, 41, also says the police response wasn’t good enough and has alleged that police on foot had searched the wooded spot where the white VW Tiguan was hidden from view for 48 hours.
She said: ‘Policemen on foot had searched the area but didn’t find anything.
‘It was on a main road, next to a roundabout and opposite a garden centre. It doesn’t make sense.
‘People who didn’t even know the girls were out searching that night and it was a woman with a dog that found the car.
‘We told the police where to look and one of them told me later that night that drink drivers use that stretch of road.’
The police watchdog is now inspecting both South Wales Police and Gwent Police amid questions about the speed of their response.
A missing person report was filed with Gwent Police at around 9pm on Saturday, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Yet an official appeal was not issued until just after 11pm on Sunday – more than a day later.
In the meantime, relatives were frantically appealing for information on social media and had even started their own searches for their relatives.
Ms Certowicz, said she was appalled by the apparent lack of concern among officers when she first reported her daughter missing.
In response, she was forced to mount her own search around Gwent and Cardiff after the force told her to ‘stop ringing’ the station for updates.
‘They didn’t seem to care,’ Ms Certowicz, 42, said. ‘I had to drive to Cardiff to knock on doors myself because they were doing sod all. They just didn’t seem to think it was worth investigating. It was so frustrating.
‘I think they assumed that Sophie was hungover somewhere, but she’s a sensible girl who works in a bank and hasn’t taken a day off for three years.
‘She’s not someone who’s out clubbing in Cardiff all the time. On Friday nights she’s more likely to be babysitting so other people can go out. She wouldn’t just vanish like this unless something was wrong.’
Ms Certowicz said she drove past the site where the car was found three times in her desperate hunt, passing within 20 yards of it. It could not be seen from the road due to camber and trees.
Meanwhile, volunteers who joined the search for the missing five said the fact a dog walker found the wreckage before police ‘speaks volumes.’
South Wales Police and Gwent Police have since referred the matter to the Independent Office For Police conduct.
Ms Certowicz was one of 200 people out searching for the five adults.
She revealed that her daughter was ‘conscious some of the time’ in the car after it ran off the A48 in Cardiff and had ‘called out but no one was close enough to hear her.’
She sa
