A MOTHER involved in a car accident has died after being in a coma for 12 years, it was revealed yesterday.
Patricia Whale, 54, from High Spen, north of Consett, County Durham, had received treatment at Shotley Bridge Hospital since the accident on the night of April 30, 1990, but finally lost her battle for life earlier this week,
Her husband, Graham, who was driving the family's Ford Escort carrying his wife and children on the night of the accident, was unavailable for comment yesterday.
The couple's children, Alan, then 13, and Maria, then 15, escaped with minor injuries, but Mrs Whale's child by another man, Angela Pratt, then 16, suffered a fractured spine.
The accident happened on the road from Hedley-on-the-Hill, in Northumberland, to Leadgate, near Consett.
A neighbour, who asked not to named, said the couple had only moved into High Spen a few weeks before the accident. "It was a real tragedy. We were just getting to know her."
An inquest was due to open into the death yesterday but the proceedings had to be postponed while the North Durham coroner gathered more information.
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