Michelle Taylor died when the car she was travelling in left the road

Michelle Taylor, of Greystoke, Cumbria, died in October last year when the car she was a passenger in left the road and ended up on a forested verge.

The driver, 18, was fined and banned for two years for careless driving.

Michelle's mother Yvonne has called on young drivers to understand the devastation that can be caused.

She said the family had found it difficult to cope with Michelle's death.

'Extra education'

"You don't cope, you take each day as it comes. And there's a big hole, there's something missing, there's a big void," she said.

"It feels a lot of the time that the family are actually doing a life sentence because they just can't come to terms with what's happened.

"When you see the devastation from an accident it's just horrendous what's there and it stays with you forever."

She said she wanted to see extra education for 17 and 18-year-olds taking driving lessons and perhaps prevent them from driving later at night, particularly on darker nights, to cut accidents.

She is also calling for limits preventing young people who have learnt to drive in smaller cars from buying bigger cars.

She said: "If I can help one family to not go through what we are going through, it's one person's life that we have achieved to keep alive.

"And it might sound as if I am on the bandwagon and I am asking for people's sympathy and things which I am not. All I am asking the young of today is just to take it easy on the roads."