9:55am Thursday 12th April 2007
AN "irreplaceable" Stanmore Primary School governor and classroom assistant died when the car she was travelling in collided with another in Cambridgeshire on Saturday.
Mary Gray, 54, from Honeysuckle Close in Badger Farm, died near the A10 Meldreth bypass at Frog End just after mid-day.
She was travelling in a silver Vauxhall Zafira MPV, which was being driven by a 17-year-old Winchester man.
The driver of a blue Peugeot 206, John Faint - a 51-year-old from Sawston near Cambridge - was also killed in the crash.
Patrick Davies, the acting chairman of governors at Stanmore Primary School, said the news was "a terrible shock".
"One just feels devastated, first and foremost for the family but also for everyone in the Stanmore Primary School community," he said.
"She was one of those people who was absolutely irreplaceable. She was totally reliable for any task that needed doing. You could always ask her and rely on Mary. She would always do what needed to be done and she was brilliant. She was known to absolutely everybody and everybody knew and liked her."
Keith Crate, the former chair of governors at Stanmore Primary said that Mrs Gray would be "sadly missed".
"She was always very committed to the school. She's been there quite a few years and she was always very supportive and highly involved in going on school trips and everything else."
A fire crew from Royston and a rescue vehicle from Cambridge released one person from the wreckage on Saturday.
The 17-year-old Vauxhall driver and his other passengers, a 50-year-old man and a boy, also both from Winchester, were taken to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge along with a passenger from the Peugeot for treatment.
The A10 was closed for several hours between Royston and junction 11 on the M11 as police launched an investigation.
They have appealed for witnesses to come forward and PC Pete Bimson, from Cambridgeshire Police, said they were particularly keen to speak to the driver of a dark vehicle, who stopped and helped the victims after the crash before emergency services arrived.
The stretch of road where the accident happened is known as a dangerous one where a motorcyclist died after colliding with a bus last month.
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