Girl, 17, killed pensioner, 79, when she ploughed into his car in Wales

A 17-year-old girl driving friends back from the beach hit and killed a pensioner just three months after passing her test.

Hanna Lewis ploughed into the car of 79-year-old Bryan Smithers on a sharp bend after the day out in August last year.

Newly-qualified driver Lewis was ‘distracted’ by her friend when she ploughed head-on into the pensioner’s car in south Wales. 

Mr Smithers died at the scene of the crash near the beach at Llansteffan, Carmarthenshire. 

One of the driver’s friends was also seriously injured, a court was told.  

Prosecutor Sian Vaughan told magistrates: ‘This is a tragic set of circumstances.

‘She approached a bend on the wrong side of the road and it was a head-on collision.

‘She had perhaps been distracted by friends having been to the beach earlier with them.’ 

Mr Smithers lived in the nearby village of Llanybri where he was an active member of the community as treasurer of the local hall committee.

Lewis, of Llandovery, admitted causing death by dangerous driving in her Audi A1.

Newly-qualified driver Hanna Lewis (pictured) was ‘distracted’ by her friend when she ploughed head-on into the pensioner’s car in south Wales

Defence solicitor Gareth Walters said she was an ‘inexperienced’ driver.

He said: ‘She passed her test in May and the collision was at the end of August.’

‘With Miss Lewis’ inexperience and lack of knowledge of the road there is no doubt this was a tragic incident.’

District Judge James said: ‘A lack of driving experience contributed, it seems, to the causality of the collision.’

Lewis, now 18, will face sentencing at Swansea Crown Court in October and was remanded on bail by magistrates at Llanelli. 

Mr Smithers died at the scene of the crash after Lewis and her friends had been driving home from the beach (pictured) at Llansteffan, Carmarthenshire