British girl who survived swine flu is killed in US car crash

A London teenager who had to be put on a life-support machine after contracting swine flu while on holiday in Greece has died 15 months later in a car crash in America.

Natasha Newman, 17, from Highgate — a former pupil at Gordonstoun, Prince Charles's old school — was killed when the people carrier she was riding in crashed and overturned in Utah.

She was a pupil at Sunrise Academy, a residential school for teenage girls, when the accident happened.

At the end of July last year, Miss Newman fell critically ill with swine flu on the island of Cephalonia, and was taken to hospital in Athens. She suffered respiratory failure, pneumonia and lung damage.

Today, police in Utah said six Sunrise
Academy girls were in the Chevrolet people carrier when the driver lost control of the vehicle and it rolled over several times, as the party travelled between Moab and Hurricane in the Salt Lake area. Miss Newman died at the scene.

Her family was said to be devastated. Her father, Julian Newman, who owns north London company J Newman Textiles, has flown out to the US with a family friend.

Another 17-year-old Sunrise Academy girl from Arlington, Massachusetts, was thrown out of the car when it rolled. She was flown to hospital and remained in a critical condition today. The other four passengers were treated for minor injuries at a local hospital.

Police said the investigation into the crash is ongoing, and that just before the accident it is believed the driver was trying to attract the attention of another motorist on a bend. No further details were being released about the people carrier's driver.

"We are deeply, deeply saddened by this terrible tragedy," said Dave Prior, executive director of the academy, which describes itself as helping "girls between the ages of 13 and 17 who are struggling with a range of emotional and behavioural issues".

Mr Prior added: "Our hearts break for our student who was killed, for her family, and for all those who sustained injuries or trauma."

Miss Newman's swine flu ordeal was widely covered in the British media. She was in intensive care for several weeks in Athens before she was finally able to fly home with her father and her mother, Nikki Boughton.