A fund dedicated to a loving mother of three killed by an drink driver from High Ongar is building a lasting memorial that will help her children's school.

Eighteen months after the horrific crash which took his wife of 17 years and left his young daughter fighting for her own life, Ron Ridge spoke for the first time about the event.

He described how he prayed that something worthwhile could come from the tragic death of his wife, and hit out at a legal system that he still feels let his family down.

Jackie Ridge died in January 1998 when a Range Rover driven by David Thompson from High Ongar smashed head-on into her car as she was on her way to Mountnessing to prepare her son's birthday party.

Daughter Louise, now five, was so badly injured she was in a full body plaster and a wheelchair for months after the crash.

Now Ron, from Rectory Chase, Doddinghurst, has pledged to build a state-of-the-art computer room at Bentley St Paul's Church of England Primary School, using money from the Jackie Ridge Memorial Fund.

"For my family the accident was a terrible time," Ron said. "The school has done everything it can to make us feel wanted and given me lots of support.

"For me it means that there is something that means Jackie is going to be remembered. My daughter is in reception so she is going to be here several years and she will use the room dedicated to her mum.

"When we were arranging the funeral I spoke to my local priest and discussed the service. I said I would like the collection to go towards something to remember her and something Jackie would support. That's when I thought about the school.

"It doesn't stop the grief, that is still there. But at least we can see something good come out of something so terrible."

More than £2,000 was collected at the service. Since then Ron has appealed to local businesses, who have contributed.

Now the Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys has donated an amazing £5,000 to the fund, presented at the school last week.

The fund is also supporting a Jackie Ridge Divinity Award, for the pupil who most epitomises the ethos of the church school.

Meanwhile Ron tries to raise his family as best he can. Eighteen months on, little Louise, and her brothers 10-year-old James, and Anthony, 12, a pupil at St Martin's School in Hutton still miss their mother.

"My daughter is going to be brought up without a mum," said Ron. "I can try to be as much a mum as a dad but I can't know what it is she has to go through. She still talks about her mum, as do both the boys, and they all still cry because she's not there - and so do I.

"You look at all that happened and just think it's so futile. Here is a family who are happy and quite normal and suddenly they become a statistic.

"I go to the local church and I have faith. I don't know what I would have done without it."

Thompson is serving a four-year sentence after admitting causing death by dangerous driving.

"The driver got four years," said Ron, "he'll probably only serve two. If people get in their vehicle and drive when they've been drinking they may as well take a loaded gun and shoot someone.

"In a year's time this man may be back on the streets. You can get nine years for offences against the taxman but only this short time for taking someone's life."

Despite his anger with the legal system Ron is determined to move forward with his life.

"I don't want my life lived in the past. The fund will provide what it is going to provide here at the school and leave some money for the continuing award, but that's it.

"We need to move forward. I've set myself these goals and then once I've achieved them that's it.

"I'll always remember her and the children will always remember her. This is for her friends, and for the children to see something tangible. Her life wasn't just wasted. She did so many things with her life and I would like to think she went on achieving things."

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.