Mother-of-two Shirley Caswell does not feel the same sense of shock as other gallery visitors when she sees the images of twisted metal and blood-soaked bodies in the 'When Lives Collide' exhibition.

She sees through the wreckage and goes deeper into what the families affected by the crash will be going through. To her, the accident is the start of a painful journey that just does not end.

"There is a lot more devastation to follow after the accident," said 48-year-old Mrs Caswell. "That is what drivers have to realise when they look at the pictures. You have to take more care because this is only the beginning."

Her daughter died in a traffic accident eight years ago and Mrs Caswell still expects her to come walking through the door of their Kidderminster home.

Melanie Caswell, 21, was killed when the driver of an army truck in which she was travelling fell asleep at the wheel. She had just been promoted to lance corporal before the fatal crash on the M4 motorway.

Mrs Caswell said: "It is very sad that she has not been able to live her life as she would have been 29 now and I wonder if she would have been married, or if she would have been a mother and myself a grandmother.

"I keep expecting her to come home. You never ever recover from something like this. I still keep her room the same as it was and I still smell her clothes."

Mrs Caswell said her daughter acted like a mother to her two sons, Ben and Elliot, as they were born when Melanie was a teenager.

"They were hit really hard by Melanie's death," she said. "I hope this exhibition makes motorists realise how accidents can affect people's lives."

* 'When Lives Collide' is at the Custard Factory until November 4.

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