Street racing: The families who lost loved ones in deadly crash

"I wish the day the police came here and told me what had happened, they’d have just put a bullet in my head. Because to me, my life isn’t worth living anymore."

It’s through streaming tears that Tracy shares her grief at losing her daughter Liberty Charris, at the age of just 16, in a street racing crash.

Describing it as 'heartbreak' doesn’t seem to go far enough. This is a life in ruins. Devastation comes off her in waves.

“I was a larger than life character that would have gone anywhere, done anything for anybody, and now, I’m more or less a recluse,” she says.

“It’s funny what it does to you. I don’t want to go out and enjoy myself - how can I enjoy myself?"

“I know I will never be happy again.”

She’s standing in the shadow of a mural painted on a street wall in Dudley, in memory of her daughter.

The last she saw of Liberty was as she ran out of the door on the evening of November 20th, 2022, saying she was off to see friends and promising not to be long.

She had gone to watch a street race along Oldbury Road in Oldbury in Sandwell - with drivers speeding between the traffic roundabouts at Spon Lane South and Rood End Road to perform circuits.

One of them, Dhiya Al-Maamoury - aged 54 at the time - lost control. His heavily-modified Nissan Skyline spun off the road, and hit a crowd of pedestrians.

Two teenagers, Ebonie Parkes and Ethan Kilburn, suffered life-changing injuries. Liberty, and 19-year-old Ben Corfield, were killed.

Now, at the spot where Al-Maamoury’s car left the road, a wooden planter adorns the wall in tribute to the pair.

It’s been more than a year since Ben’s parents, Lynette and Damien, have visited the scene.

They returned there with ITV News to help share Ben’s story - but say the memories of rushing there in the early hours of November 21st still haunt them; as do the questions which can never be answered.

“Was he crying out for us? Was he crying for his mum and dad? You know, was he in pain?” Damien says.

“It’s devastating. For me, I just want to go. I don't want to be here at all. Just knowing that this is the place where our son lost his life. He was far greater than that. It's soul destroying, it really is.”

Ben had served as a junior councillor and junior MP - and had been in the final stages of interview for a job with Tesla.

After his death, his parents learned how he’d been involved with numerous community initiatives they’d never even heard about - as well as stories of how he’d gone out of his way to help others.

He’d once helped an elderly couple move out of their semi-detached house into sheltered accommodation, using his own car to do so, when he heard they were worried about the cost of hiring movers. For months afterwards, he would pay them visits to check in on them and see how they were doing.

“He was the most fun-loving, wonderful young man,” Lynette tells us. “Just a pleasure of a son."

“He’d got so much to offer the world. He was just the most… the purest soul.”

They say they still, even now, half expect him to walk through the door as though nothing had happened - to continue living the life he should have been able to live.

Instead, they’ve been left with a gaping hole in their family.

That agonising grief - the loss of a lifetime of joy, love, and potential - is one Tracy knows all too well.

Liberty - or Lib (“nobody called her Libby”, Tracy says) - had dreamed of becoming a presenter at a national radio station, and had been determined to make it happen.

“She’d got big dreams,” Tracy says. “My dad said to her at the age of four: ‘Lib - what are you going to do when you're older?’ She was like: ‘I’m going to be bigger than Gaga’.

“She was a drama queen. Massively. But she lived life to the full. She was so passionate about life, about charity - she would do anything for anybody.

“And she'd sign me up for everything. ‘Mom, we’re doing a Zumbathon!’ ‘Mom, we’re doing the Walk for Life!’ ‘Mom, I'm doing this’.

“I miss her so much.”

Al-Maamoury, now 56, from Solihull, was jailed in November last year for 13 years and six months after admitting two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

But for the families of Ben and Liberty - their sentence will last a lifetime.

You can watch the Tonight programme 'Street Racing: Caught on Camera' on ITVX

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know...