Family pay tribute to ‘wonderful’ four-year-old girl killed in M4 crash

Gracie-Ann Wheaton died after a van hit the car she was travelling in.
Gracie-Ann Wheaton died after a crash on the M4 near Newport (Family handout)
Bronwen Weatherby7 February 2022

The family of a “wonderful” and “creative” four-year-old girl who died after a crash on a motorway in south Wales have said it is hard to believe she is gone.

Gracie-Ann Wheaton, from Tredegar, had been returning from a birthday party at around 1.45pm on Saturday when the car she was travelling in was hit by a van.

The accident happened on the M4 westbound carriageway between junctions 28 and 29, prompting a huge emergency services response and causing the route to be closed for around seven hours.

She was so young. She had a bright future ahead of her. She was such a wonderful child.

Cousin Jamie Lucas

Gracie-Ann was rushed to the intensive care unit (ICU) of University Hospital of Wales, also known as the Heath Hospital, in Cardiff but suffered a cardiac arrest due to the severity of her injuries.

She died at around 5am on Sunday morning, family members confirmed.

The Ford Transit driver, 41-year-old Martin Newman, of Croeserw, appeared at Newport Magistrates’ Court on Monday charged with causing death by dangerous driving and two offences of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

He has been remanded into custody pending a hearing at Newport Crown Court on February 21.

A woman remains in hospital in a stable condition, while another child is in a critical condition.

Cousin Jamie Lucas, 19, from Abergavenny told the PA news agency: “I’m just trying to wrap my head around the fact that she’s gone; it’s hard to believe.

“She was so young. She had a bright future ahead of her. She was such a wonderful child.

“I’m just lost for words really. How she was returning from a birthday party and all of a sudden she’s gone.”

He added: “She was very smart, she was very creative. She had a really great imagination as well. She was just fantastic to be around.”

Anyone with dashcam footage of the collision, or any information that could help the investigation, is asked to call Gwent Police on 101 and quote 2200041245.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in