A “fiercely independent” 84-year-old woman has died after her car left the road and crashed down an embankment into woods.
Isobel Hughes, from Madeley Heath, was discovered in her overturned vehicle on Sunday morning, just off the A531 near Bowsey Wood in Staffordshire. Emergency crews were called at around 7.15am on Sunday to the spot, opposite the T-junction with Heighley Castle Way, where she lived alone.
She was found inside her vehicle and had to be cut free but died as paramedics battled to save her, reports StokeonTrentLive. Miles Flanagan, 52 was a close friend of Isobel and said he last saw her on Friday night when she told him and his wife Sue ,48, that she would see the couple “after the weekend”.
He added: “I just read into that that she was going away for the weekend, as she had friends on the other side of Stafford.” Staffordshire Police have confirmed they had received no missing person reports before the discovery of Isobel's white Suzuki Splash.
It is understood part of the police investigation will focus on how long the vehicle may have been at the crash site, which is not visible from the road. Mr Flanagan described his friend as someone with “a cheeky smile and a sparkle in her eye”, and a very active member of the community, often meeting friends in the Madeley Centre in the village.
She had been a First Responder, and a fundraiser for the Midlands Air Ambulance. He added: “She was a fiercely independent woman. She always spent her time out of the house, she was rarely in. She’d go round checking all the batteries in the community defibrillators, and loved visiting the local artisan markets.”
Mr Flanagan said she had been keenly concerned with road safety in the area, particularly the speed at which cars would drive in the stretch out of the village before the 60mph limit section began. He added “She’d been campaigning for years to have the limit reduced because it isn’t felt that the road is really wide enough for two cars.”
Isobel was born in Scotland, and after losing her parents at an early age, lived with her aunt close to Colliston Castle, where her aunt worked in the kitchens. “Whenever she went to the fishmongers she would bring us back Arbroath smokies,” Mr Flanagan said.
She was widely travelled, spending summers as a teenager climbing and helping out in hostels in North Wales, spending time with relatives in Canada and living for a time with her husband Bob in Jakarta, Indonesia. She was said to have cured her fear of flying by travelling to far-flung places.
In Indonesia and back in the UK, she worked in hospitals, and worked until her retirement at the Nuffield Hospital down the road in Newcastle. After retiring she founded the Madeley First Responders.
She suffered a personal tragedy in 2010 when her son Kevin, then 34, died after a battle with alcoholism. She is understood to be survived by a grandson, 18, and her husband, from whom she is separated, is believed to live in Canada.
Isobel was a keen dog lover, who had had two giant schnauzers with which she would regularly visit Crufts. Mr Flanagan said it was a bitter irony that someone as concerned as she was with the safety of the road should have died in an accident on it.
He added: “No-one would have seen her car from the road. A couple of years ago someone else went down that embankment as well. It must be around 30ft down the drop. Surely now after someone’s died there, something needs to be done about that junction.”
Cllr David Williams, highways cabinet member for Staffordshire County Council, which is responsible for the upkeep and safety of the A531, said: "We are sorry to hear of this tragic incident, and our thoughts are with Isobel’s family and friends at this sad time. We have not received any reports of concerns about this stretch of road in the last few years, however a police investigation is under way and we will await the outcome of that and any recommendations arising from any coroner’s inquest following this incident."
A Staffordshire Police spokeswoman added that the pensioner's next-of-kin have been informed of her death. The spokeswoman added: “We are keen to speak to anyone with CCTV or dashcam footage from the area, or those with any information which could help collision investigators.”
Anyone with information should call Staffordshire Police on 101 and quote incident 175 of October 1. They can also email the collision investigation team at ciu@staffordshire.police.uk.