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Mourners in crash

from Cathy (cathyvpreece@aol.com)

Mourners in crash

Jun 15 2004
By Vicky Wilks

South London Press

TWO sisters and their young children were in a smash with a van and a lorry as they drove to their dad's funeral.

The women, who had a 12-year-old and a baby in their car, were heading to Streatham Cemetery when the crash happened on Friday morning June 11.

Their navy blue Ford Fusion was in collision with the small lorry but the family escaped without serious injury.

A white Mercedes Benz van with a Belgian registration plate was caught up in the melee. It ended up on its side yards from the junction of King's Avenue and Atkins Road in Clapham.

The elder of the sisters, from Kennington, had driven to Brixton Hill to pick up her younger sister and baby to take them to the cemetery off Garratt Lane in Tooting.

Their 84-year-old father had passed away the previous day and as the family are Kurdish Iraqis, their custom is to bury the deceased the following day. The sisters' brother, Hogar Marof, was on his way to the funeral from his home in Chislehurst when he heard the news and rushed to the scene.

As police helped his shocked sisters, he told the South London Press: "We should be following the coffin. We are supposed to go now."

The crash happened just before 11am and the family funeral was due to start at 2.30pm.

Mr Marof added: "My sisters phoned me and told me to make a U-turn quickly and come back here. I was shocked - especially as it happened today.

"Now I just want to get to the funeral and finish it."

The area around the smash was cordoned off by police and King's Avenue and Atkins Road were closed for three hours.

A 30-year-old man who was in the van was taken to St George's Hospital, Tooting, with a cut elbow.

The lorry was being driven by a 42-year-old man. He was taken to the same hospital complaining of pains in his knee.

The sisters and their children did not require hospital treatment. No arrests have been made, but cops are investigating the cause of the smash.

(posted 7226 days ago)

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