Car crash woman dies at 55

Margaret Austin's Nissan Micra was in collision with a Mercedes Vito van driven by a 57-year-old man from Uckield in King Offa Way on the evening of Wednesday, December and then hit a Vauxhall Astra parked in a layby. She was taken by ambulance to the Conquest Hospital.

Police announced on Tuesday that she had died and appealed for witnesses to the 7.45pm accident to contact Acting Sergeant Paul Masterson at the Bexhill Road Policing Unit on 0845 60970999.

Observer advertisement representative Dave Gilbert, whose Astra was smashed in the accident, said this week: "I knew that she had been taken into intensive care and was in a coma.

"At first we had thought that she was going to be O.K.

"I was the first person out there after it happened. She had been thrown into the passenger seat. I could see that she was going into and out of consciousness. One of my neighbours phoned for the police.

"A witness told me that she had been coming down the inside lane of King Offa Way when she suddenly swerved and drove off the road."

Margaret Austin was 55 and lived at Kestrel Close. The Observer understands that her nearest relative is a sister living in Dublin. Neighbours the Observer spoke to on Wednesday said Kestrel Close was the sort of place where people "kept to themselves" and they knew little about her.