The grieving parents of Lee Fitt - the 100th person to die on Essex roads this year - have paid tribute to their son.

Mr Fitt, 24, of Canterbury Road, New Town, Colchester, died when a lorry was in collision with his broken down Ford Orion on the A12 at Stanway, in the early hours of Tuesday.

Speaking from the family home in Canterbury Road, where Mr Fitt lived all his life, his heartbroken parents David and Doreen are trying to come to terms with Christmas without their son.

"He was such a caring person. He was just so generous, so kind, always thinking of other people," said Mrs Fitt yesterday (Thursday).

The accident happened on the way back to Colchester after Mr Fitt had picked up his girlfriend Sarah Norman, 21, from Brentwood, where she worked as a chef.

Mr Fitt was standing outside the Orion car and Sarah was sitting in the passenger seat when the collision happened.

She suffered minor neck injuries but was otherwise unharmed. Police arrested a lorry driver in connection with the crash and released him on bail.

Mr Fitt attended St George's Junior School and St Helena School before studying at Colchester Institute in Sheepen Road to become a chef.

He switched to train in hotel management and got a job at the Marks Tey Hotel for several years, where he met Sarah. The couple had planned to marry and raise a family.

Mrs Fitt said: "Sarah is devastated. They were devoted to each other. For us it is hard, but for her it is worse because she had a future with him.

The couple's ambition was to open their own restaurant, and Mr Fitt had recently become assistant manager of the Rivenhall Hotel. He had a three-year-old daughter, Jessica-Rose, from a previous marriage, who lives with her mother.

Mrs Fitt said although her son was separated from Jessica-Rose's mother he was a loving father.

"The day of the accident he had the day off and was going to see her. There was nothing Lee would not do for her," she said. Mr and Mrs Fitt, Sarah, and Lee's older sister Karen Freak, 26, and her family, are now facing up to Christmas without him.

Mrs Fitt said: "We are going to have to get through it for the grandchildren. But everything has come to a stop."

Mr Fitt said the heartache has been made worse because Lee's body cannot be released for burial while police conduct an investigation into the accident.

Accident victim - Lee Fitt was the 100th person to die on the roads of Essex this year.

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