Andrew Charles AITKENHEAD

29 The Drive, Hove

From http://skateguard1.blogspot.com

THE VYAIEHRAD CRASH

After a performance of Holiday On Ice in Prague, Czechoslovakia on December 20, 1972, a group of skaters attended a party at the British Embassy. Late at night, they accepted a drive back to their hotel in a chauffeur-driven Embassy car.

Tragically, the car collided with the rock wall of the Vyšehrad road tunnel, skidded and then collided with a tram and was flattened. The only survivor was an American Embassy official, but he was badly injured and was unable to provide a clear picture of how the accident occurred. The driver, a twenty one year old accountant at the British Embassy and three skaters were killed. Twenty one year old Andrew Aitkenhead from Brighton, nineteen year old Anita Jager and eighteen year old Janice Wells, both of Nottingham, were the skaters who perished. "Skating World" magazine noted that Andrew and Anita were inter-silver dance medallists and that Anita and Janice had passed their inter-silver figures. Andrew had won the Barron Trophy for boys under fifteen in 1965. The tragic accident was covered in the "Daily Mirror" and "Birmingham Post". Three skaters less, the Holiday On Ice troupe solemnly made their way to Essen, West Germany for their next show... and a rather gloomy Christmas.