IPSWICH: Beautiful Sian Ryan should be looking forward to her 18th birthday.

But today her grieving family will be returning to the scene of the crash which claimed her young life one year ago.

The 16-year-old was killed after the car she was travelling in collided with a signpost at the side of the A14 near Nacton on August 17 last year.

Her devastated parents Chrissie and Mike and her four sisters, Keely, Zoe, Hayley and Annalise and two brothers Darren and Michael have struggled to come to terms with losing “the favourite,” and the centre of their worlds.

Speaking at the family home in Alan Road, mum Chrissie said her youngest child is the first thing she thinks about in the morning and the last thing she dreams about at night.

“I can’t believe it has been a year,” she said. “I still expect her to walk through the door full of smiles.

“She still makes us all laugh, she always did and she always will.

“We talk about her every day and she is always in our thoughts.”

One year after their worlds fell apart, her family are still struggling to face “all the firsts” without Sian.

Chrissie added: “It is all the first birthdays since she’s been gone, the first Christmas that is so hard – and now the first anniversary.

“My baby would have been 18 next month, that’s another celebration we are going to have to face.

“She is still here with us, all around us all the time.”

And Sian’s older sisters Keely and Annalise added: “She is still the centre of our lives, even though she is no longer with us in body.”

Two young motorists, with just seven months driving experience between them, were at the wheels of their cars on the A14 on August 17 last year.

Perri Daniel, of Upper Cavendish Street, then 19, was weaving in her Citroen Saxo and Gavin Sahota of Stewart Young Grove, Kesgrave, then 18, performed a dangerous undertaking manoeuvre in his Audi A3 causing the tragic crash to happen.

Following a trial at Ipswich Crown Court in June, both Daniel, 20, and Sahota, 19, are today serving three-year sentences in a young offenders institution for their parts in causing Sian’s death by dangerous driving.

Distraught at the circumstances of her death, Sian’s family are today calling for tougher measures to be taken to ensure young drivers are carefully monitored.

Chrissie said: “We want to see restrictions in place to keep a track of young inexperienced drivers. If we can make just one young driver stop and think about their actions behind the wheel and spare another family’s grief, some good will come of our losing Sian.”

n Do you think young drivers should be more closely monitored? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk.