AN inquest was due to open today into the death of a teenager who was killed in an horrific car crash in South Africa.Amy Taylor, 19, was one of three people in the same car who died in the accident near Johannesburg last month.

AN inquest was due to open today into the death of a teenager who was killed in an horrific car crash in South Africa.

Amy Taylor, 19, was one of three people in the same car who died in the accident near Johannesburg last month.

Amy, whose family live in Felix Road, Felixstowe, had been on a gap year and looking forward to starting at Bath University in October to study choreography and teach dance.

She had a zest for life and many friends and had travelled out to South Africa to see the country and spend time with her best friend Antoinette and her family.

But as they travelled home from an evening out at the cinema, they were involved in a road accident. After coming over a bridge they found the unlit road blocked by a lorry which had shed its load of steel.

They swerved to avoid it and it is understood they were in collision with oncoming traffic and were also hit by vehicles from behind.

Amy, and Antoinette and her sister, were all killed.

Police in South Africa have been investigating the accident, and Amy's body has now been flown home so that funeral arrangements can be made.

A spokesman for the Coroner's Office at Ipswich said today's inquest at Ipswich Crown Court – which is expected to be opened and adjourned – was the usual procedure for anyone who died abroad from other than natural causes and whose body was brought back to Britain for a funeral.

The coroner had a duty to investigate the circumstances and hold an inquest.

Amy's grieving parents Jonathan and Cheryle Taylor have described their daughter as a "vivacious personality" who was excited about university and had taken a gap year to widen her horizons and prepare herself.

"She was so vibrant and talented and she worked so hard. Lots of people knew her and everyone loved her. Dancing was her passion in her life and she had danced since she was two," said Mrs Taylor.

The couple also have sons Simon, 24, James, 15, Joshua, 11, and a daughter Kylie, 16.

Amy, who went to Colneis Junior in Felixstowe and then St Alban's Roman Catholic High School in Ipswich, went to Suffolk College to do a diploma in dance and performing arts before taking her gap year in London. She was a member of Stagecoach dance school in Ipswich.

She worked at Buckingham Palace and for the Pensions Ombudsman, travelled to Australia, and studied at the Pineapple Dance Studio in Covent Garden.