Father and daughter, 8, killed in holiday jeep crash after '4x4 driver is blinded during water pistol fight'



A Briton has died along with his daughter in a freak accident in Turkey.

Jonothan and Charley Pearce were in a convoy of Land Rovers whose tourist passengers were exchanging fire with water pistols.

A stray shot hit their driver in the face, forcing him to lose control and plough into a tractor and trailer.

Charley, eight, was flung from the open-top vehicle and died instantly. Her 38-year-old father died in the ambulance taking him to hospital.

Charley’s cousin, Joseph, also eight, suffered head injuries and was critically ill last night.

Freak accident: Jonothan and Charley Pearce were in a convoy of Land Rovers

Mr Pearce, who ran a florist’s with wife Joanne in Smethwick, West Midlands, had taken seven members of his family on holiday.

They were staying at the four-star First Choice Holiday Village in Sarigerme on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.

Last night, a relative said: ‘The whole family are completely distraught at what has happened.’

Land Rover tours, complete with water pistols, are among the most popular excursions booked by tourists staying in Sarigerme.



A Briton who was in the convoy said: ‘It was dreadful – really dreadful. One minute they were all laughing and squirting each other with water pistols.

‘The driver, a young lad, was squirted with water which temporarily blinded him.

‘He saw the tractor too late and swerved to avoid it – but as he swerved the back of the Land Rover took the full impact of the crash. No one was wearing seat belts, they were standing up in the Land Rover having a whale of a time.

‘When they hit the tractor I saw them being flung out into the road.



Shattered: The wrecked Land Rover that the Pearce family were in

Danger: Land Rover tours with water pistols are a hit with tourists in Turkey

‘We reversed back and jumped out to help. Charley had suffered really bad head injuries and was obviously dead. We just covered her up where she lay in the road. It was devastating.’

It is thought the shot of water that blinded the driver was fired by a German motorcyclist who was trying to join in the hijinks.

He left the scene and Turkish police are trying to trace him. Emre Ergun of Sarigerme Tours, which organised the excursion, said: ‘We advise our customers just to water fight between each other.’

A company spokesman said it was the first accident in five years of running the tours.

He said: ‘Three of the Land Rovers passed the broken-down tractor. But as the fourth Land Rover came down the road a German motorbike tourist thought he’d join in the fun and threw water at the Land Rover.

No chance: the tractor trailer full of bricks which the Land Rover smashed into

‘It hit the driver in the face and temporarily blinded him.’

A British couple, Chan and Garandip Singh, were in the same Land Rover as the eight members of the Pearce party and Mr Sing suffered severe head injuries.

A First Choice spokesman said: ‘We would like to express our heartfelt sympathy to family and friends during this deeply sad time.’