SOME stories are so sad that, as you read them, they make you cry. Our front page news today paints a dreadful mental picture of father Steve Sawyer, himself badly injured, walking screaming around the wreckage of his car as his six-year-old daughter Rebecca is trapped, dying, within it and his 18-month-old toddler Kirsty lies motionless in the road where she has been thrown.

The time of year doesn't help - Christmas is for families, and these little girls were the perfect age to enjoy the season to its fullest.

Our hearts and tears really do go out for Mr Sawyer and his family.

For legal reasons, we shall refrain from saying exactly what we think of the people who have done this to his poor family.

Our descriptions, though, can probably be guessed at because the facts from the police speak eloquently for themselves: a car stolen near Durham, its identity disguised by false number plates, jumped a red light.

It goes without saying that we urge anyone with any information to go to the police.

This happened late on New Year's Eve, when most people were with family and friends to enjoy a drink and wish them all the best for the future. We commend all the emergency staff who were still at their posts - the firefighters, the paramedics, the police, the hospital staff - and who tried their hardest amid such heartbreaking scenes.

And finally, last year's terrible Leonie Shaw case showed that, in the wrong hands, these huge chunks of metal that we all throw around with such gay abandon at such high speeds are invariably killers when they come up against fragile human beings.

Some people, though, appear not to have learned anything from Leonie's death, and once again it is the innocent who are the most vulnerable.