Influencer, 22, killed in 100mph crash after boyfriend's Audi hit taxi
An influencer and her boyfriend were killed when the car he was driving at 98mph hit an oncoming taxi in a Liverpool tunnel, an inquest has heard.
Paige Rice, 22, was in the passenger seat of the Audi S3 being driven by Callum Miller, 27, when it collided with a Mercedes taxi in the Queensway Tunnel on 17 October last year.
Rice, a nail technician from the West Midlands, died in hospital a few hours after the crash, while her boyfriend died the next day.
She had been visiting him in Liverpool at the time.
The taxi driver, a man in his 40s, survived but suffered life-changing injuries to his right leg and hip.
The Audi had been travelling at 98mph when it was heading towards the tunnel, before first colliding with a Volkswagen Passat and a London cab.
It then went into the tunnel and hit the Mercedes taxi head-on.
The taxi, which had been travelling at 24mph, was pushed backwards some distance as a result of the collision.
Rice’s mother, Clare, paid tribute to her daughter last October after her death.
In a tribute posted on Instagram, she wrote that her daughter was “the most beautiful girl, with the biggest smile, a contagious laugh and heart of gold”.
She said Paige, her brother Tyler and herself would always be the “three musketeers”.
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She wrote: “Words can not describe how broken I am as her mum. I'm overwhelmed by the love being shown.
“If you were a friend of Paige she would love you with all she's got and she would be there in an instant if you ever needed her.
“She lived life to its fullest. She had big dreams and Paige always made things happen. Her drive to succeed was inspirational.
“Paige has been my rock recently, I can barely breathe right now and I don't know how to carry on.
“My house is quiet and all I want is to talk to her one last time.”
An inquest at the Gerard Majella Courthouse in Liverpool on Monday heard that Rice’s cause of death was trauma, while Miller’s death was given as a traumatic brain injury.
Coroner André Rebello said: "When I die, I want people to remember me for the person I am now.
"I don't think anyone here would ever want to be remembered for their death. It is appropriate and gives these young people dignity in their deaths if you celebrate and remember those lives that you remember in your hearts.
"Death is debilitating and covers a rollercoaster of human emotion; revenge, bitterness, love.
"Life is not measured in time, it is measured in love. So please celebrate those lives."
Rice started her own make-up artist business when she was 15.
Her mother said she had a “large following” on Instagram.
She told Birmingham Live: "Paige was just so full of life. She lived life to the full. She was a beautiful woman inside and out. Her smile would light up a room.”
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