A mother and her two children who died in a crash with double-decker bus had fled war-torn Ukraine.
Daria Bartienieva, 35, Anastasiia Bartienieva, 15, and Ihor Bartienieva, six, were killed when two cars collided with the bus near Ripon in North Yorkshire on Sunday.
The tragedy came seven months after the children’s father also died in a car crash in Ukraine in February – leaving a surviving daughter aged 15, now orphaned in Britain.
Donna Chilcott, whose fundraising page has amassed over £8,000 for the bereaved teenager, said the family were liked by locals in Ripon, where they sought sanctuary.
The supermarket team leader added that Anastasiia, Ms Bartienieva’s step-daughter, had only been in the UK for five weeks before she died in the collision on the A61.
The incident happened eight days after a 59-year-old motorcyclist died in a crash on the same stretch of road.
That incident on August 26 saw the Suzuki Bandit rider involved in a collision with a dark Land Rover Discovery and a white Ford Transit van.
Police said the family’s silver Vauxhall Meriva collided with a blue Toyota Aygo and a bus, which was travelling in the opposite direction to both cars, at around 2.20pm.
The driver of the bus was taken to hospital with leg injuries, while some of its passengers were also needed treatment after sustaining minor injuries.
The two people who were travelling in the Toyota were not hurt in the crash, which happened on the rural road between South Stainley and Ripley.
