{"id":111388,"date":"2025-05-18T09:55:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T09:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/111388\/"},"modified":"2025-05-18T09:55:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T09:55:23","slug":"our-future-was-stolen-when-we-lost-our-son-in-a-devastating-west-midlands-road-collision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/111388\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Our future was stolen when we lost our son in a devastating West Midlands road collision’"},"content":{"rendered":"

They not only claim people’s lives but throw the worlds of those around them into chaos too, leaving family and friends devastated.<\/p>\n

When we hear of these tragedies we often tell ourselves it won\u2019t happen to us or our loved ones, because the thought is just too difficult to comprehend.<\/p>\n

But the sad truth is that someone you love might leave their front door one day and never come back.<\/p>\n

This is a reality Lynette and Damian Corfield are forced to live with every day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their son, Ben, was just 19 years old when he died alongside Liberty Charris, aged 16, after a car ploughed into them<\/a> as they gathered on the pavement at an illegal street racing event on Oldbury Road, Oldbury<\/a>, in 2022. Teenagers Ebonie Parkes and Ethan Kilburn were also seriously injured.<\/p>\n

\"BenBen Corfield and Liberty Charris. Photo: West Midlands Police <\/p>\n

Ben had his whole life ahead of him. He chaired a youth council, stood for election as Dudley\u2019s Youth Police and Crime Commissioner and was looking forward to standing as a local councillor.<\/p>\n

The teen wanted to follow in his dad\u2019s footsteps and get involved in the motor and transport trade. He was just two days away from attending a final interview with Tesla in Northampton when his future was taken away from him.<\/p>\n

\"LynetteLynette and Damian Corfield with a picture of their son, Ben<\/p>\n

On the night of his death, Ben had not long returned from Liverpool where he had spent two nights away with friends.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Upon arriving back home, he had a nap on the living room sofa, waking up at dinner time. He then showed his mum and dad pictures from his trip before spending some time playing on his Xbox.<\/p>\n

It was at around 9.30pm when he told his parents he was \u201cpopping out\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said \u2018an hour and I will be back\u2019,” Ben’s mother Lynette Corfield told the Express & Star. “I said \u2018alright son, no problem\u2019. At 9.38pm he went out the door.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy saying to him was \u2018I love you\u2019. He always said \u2018I love you back\u2019. I would say \u2018drive safe\u2019, he would say \u2018always\u2019. That was it – and he never came home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LynetteLynette and Ben Corfield<\/p>\n

Just before 1am Damian awoke wondering where his son was. Soon afterwards he was alerted by a doorbell camera on the front door to a police officer standing outside the house.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI knew something quite serious had probably happened but I didn\u2019t think for one minute that we lost him. I went to the front door and there were two officers there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey asked for me by name and asked if Lynette was here, and I said \u2018yes\u2019. They said \u2018can she come downstairs?\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"BenBen and Lynette Corfield’s son, Ben, was 19 when he died<\/p>\n

\u201cI said \u2018what\u2019s happened?\u2019 and they asked to come in and asked me to sit down. I didn\u2019t sit down but Lynette did.<\/p>\n

“They said ‘there is no easy way to tell you this, there has been a serious incident in Oldbury tonight on the A457 by Crystal Drive’.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said ‘your son Ben has been killed along with another young girl and some others have been injured’. I think at that split second we had the rug pulled from under us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Family are serving ‘life sentence’<\/p>\n

Dhiya Al-Maamoury was jailed last year for 13 years and six months<\/a> for causing the deaths of Ben and Liberty by dangerous driving and for two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving – but Damian said it is him and his family who are serving a \u201clife sentence\u201d since losing Ben.<\/p>\n

\"DhiyaDhiya Al Maamoury has been jailed for causing the deaths of Liberty and Ben by dangerous driving<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They not only claim people’s lives but throw the worlds of those around them into chaos too, leaving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,379,12,16,15,4349],"class_list":{"0":"post-111388","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-local-hubs","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wolverhampton"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}