A WOMAN has appeared in court accused of causing death by dangerous driving.

The horror crash on the southbound carriageway of the A23 near Warninglid left a passenger dead and another seriously injured in hospital.

A Nissan Micra had ploughed into a lorry parked in a layby.

Anghelus Pieptea, 25, from Wakefield Drive in Crawley, was named as the front seat passenger who died in the crash.

Police charged Robyn Sharon Smith with causing death by dangerous driving and she appeared in court yesterday to answer the charge.

Police and emergency services were called to the dual carriageway, 700 yards north of the exit with Broxmead Lane at 1.30am on December 16 last year.

Firefighters had to cut through the wreckage of the car to reach the casualties inside.

Police closed the road after the crash and, following an investigation, it was reopened at 9.30am.

Paramedics took 22-year-old Ellisha Adams, from Kenley in Surrey, to hospital with “serious” facial injuries.

A fourth passenger in the car escaped without serious injuries in the crash.

The lorry driver who had parked in the layby is believed to have been asleep in his cab when the crash happened.

Robyn Smith, aged 30, from Horley, was treated in hospital after the crash. She made no plea to the charge at Crawley Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

Her case will now go to the Crown Court.