The family of a “sweet” and “generous” mother from Peterborough have made a heartfelt appeal for witnesses to her fatal car crash to come forward.
Yasmeen Akhtar (32), a mum to a nine-month-old boy, died after the silver Nissa Micra she was driving hit a stationary car on the A1 at Little Ponton, near Grantham, on Friday (18 January).
The other car had been involved in an earlier collision, prompting criticism from the family and an appeal for anyone who saw the fatal crash to contact police.
Mrs Akhtar’s brother Liaqat Ali (30), from Hampton Vale, Peterborough, said: “If that car had not been there she would not have had that crash.”
He added: “The weather wasn’t good. Someone should have removed the car from the road. Why did they leave the car there?”
Mrs Akhtar, from Welland, was returning to Peterborough after giving her older brother a lift to Doncaster to pick up a new car and was driving cautiously due to the weather conditions.
Mr Ali said: “She was doing about 35mph or 40mph because of the weather. She was a really careful driver.”
He added: “We don’t know how it happened - that’s all we want to find out. How did this happen? We lost a sister for a lifetime.”
The crash took place shortly after 6pm but there was further trauma to come for the family.
When police told Mrs Akhtar’s mother of the tragedy that night she had a heart attack and was taken to Peterborough City Hospital where she was placed under intensive care.
Mr Ali said: “It’s an absolute nightmare. The family have been broken apart. It’s really devastating.”
Born in Peterborough, Mrs Akhtar was a housewife but had previously worked as a care assistant at a home in the city.
Mr Ali said her son had also been greatly affected by the loss.
He said: “He’s so attached to his mother. He’s been crying, not sleeping, not eating and every time someone opens the door he says ‘mamma’, ‘mamma’. It’s just heartbreaking.”
He paid tribute to his sister’s character.
He said: “She was bubbly, she was funny, she never said ‘no’ to anything. If you asked her for any favour, day or night, she was always there to help. She was always smiling, polite, a very generous person, very, very kind. She was a sweet person.”
A spokesman for Lincolnshire police said: “It is too early for us to talk with any certainty about the circumstances of the collision and until we establish the exact position of the vehicle that the deceased’s car collided with, we will be unable to say whose responsibility it was to remove it and whether it should have been removed sooner.”
Contact Lincolnshire police by calling 101 or visit lincs.police.uk