THE parents of 18-year-old Caitlin Huddleston have broken their silence to pay tribute to their “sweet-natured” daughter and to promise to fight for “Justice for Caitlin”.

Speaking after yesterday’s inquest, the family said they were backing the coroner’s call for the ‘Graduated Driving Licence (GDL) to be brought in as law.

In a statement, the family said: “We as a family are devastated and heartbroken over the horrendous and catastrophic crash that killed our youngest child Caitlin Lydia Huddleston in July 2017.

"Caitlin was a very quiet, sweet-natured, kind, thoughtful and a very beautiful person.

“She was a quiet homebody.

“She was 18-years-old and just flourishing into a beautiful young lady.

“We are proud of her as our daughter and deeply shocked and saddened that her life was cut so tragically short.

“She had so many plans and dreams for the future that were all taken away from her through no fault of her own.

“Caitlin had just left our family home 15 minutes previous to being tragically killed.

“We as parents thought our daughter was enjoying herself having an evening meal with friends, all the while the chaos of the crash was happening just a few miles away from her home.

“Our family will never be the same without Caitlin.

“There will always be someone special missing every single day and at every family occasion.

“This is a lifelong sentence that has been put upon our family.”

Caitlin’s mum, Sharron Huddleston, said she hoped the campaign would help to save lives like it has in Northern Ireland.

“The one thing I am determined to do is to fight for justice for Caitlin by helping the road safety charity ‘BRAKE’ campaign for the Graduated Driving Licence to be brought as law into this country as it is in many other countries already.

“‘BRAKE’ have been helping me, and continue to do so, through the most horrendous time in my life.

“Trudy Harrison, MP for Copeland, is also helping us with this campaign and we are waiting for a date to be set for a debate in Westminster Hall.

“Trudy is joining Jenny Chapman MP for Darlington with this debate.

"They have already attended a meeting in Parliament with many other organisations in favour of the Graduated Driving Licence including ‘BRAKE’, RAC, Enterprise car Rental, RoSPA and many more.

“I have put to the coroner that he writes a “Report to Prevent Future Deaths” to the relevant organisations.

“Caitlin and Skye are victims of an outdated system which cuts the lives short of a serious number of young adults and new drivers whilst destroying and rewriting families lives on an almost daily basis.

“Justice is a deterrent – to protect people, and that is what the GDL is about - protecting young inexperienced drivers and their passengers from being killed.

“Instead of encouraging them to pass a test quickly the GDL will educate them over a longer period of time in which they can gain experience to become safer drivers and hopefully this will stop the carnage on our roads and prevent another family dealing with the trauma of losing a child.

“Road crashes are not ‘accidents’, they are devastating and preventable events.

“The term ‘accident’ describes a few drops of tea spilt on your trousers – not a tonne of metal smashing into a person.

“Planes aren’t described as having ‘accidents’, they ‘crash’.

“To a family a road death has the same effect as a murder and its investigation should be no less thorough.”