Crash teen due to be bridesmaid

Rhiannon Davies (left) was a "beautiful and caring daughter"

A teenager killed with her friend in a head-on crash is to be laid to rest in the bridesmaid's dress she was to have worn to her father's wedding.

Rhiannon Davies, 18, and Jade Emanuel, 17, were going shopping when their car crashed on the A465 near Merthyr.

Richard Davies said his daughter was to have been been bridesmaid when he was due to marry in South Africa on Wednesday.

Instead, her funeral will take place in Bridgend.

Mr Davies said Rhiannon had been due to be bridesmaid at his wedding to Gaynor Morris, in Ballito, South Africa, which had been scheduled for Wednesday.

He said: "On that very same day she will now take her final journey in this world, laid to rest in her stunning bridesmaid's dress".

Mr Davies said she was a "beautiful and caring daughter" to him and her mother Julie, as well as a "tremendously loyal sister" to her brother Matthew.

Gucci taste

"Those who survive her will never forget her and her beauty and kindness will never leave any of us who were touched by her."

He described her as a "Valley girl with Gucci taste" who was always "immaculate and cool".

The child care student, from Treherbert and Ms Emanuel from the neighbouring village of Blaencwm, were on their way to go shopping in Merthyr Tydfil when they collided head on 29 March. Three men in the other car were treated for minor injuries in hospital.

South Wales Police, who are still investigating, said the blue MG Rover ZR which was being driven by Ms Davies went out of control in heavy rain.

Her father said Ms Davies's "greatest wish" was to open a child care centre and caring for children would have been "ideal vocation".

Family members visiting the scene of the fatal crash on the A465

She was in her final year at Coleg Morgannwg in Pontypridd and was working on a business plan for the child care venture, he said.

He said her other passion was "ironically" cars and driving, and she received her car two months before her 17th birthday, so she "could get used to it -sitting on her Dad's drive."

Mr Davies said she covered "almost 30,000 uneventful miles in the subsequent 20 months after passing her driving test, always being the first to volunteer to drive when she and her friends went on an outing".

The parents of the second crash victim Jade Emanuel, who wanted to be a disability learning nurse, have paid tribute to her.

Her mother and father, Lisa and Neil, and her stepdad John, said: "Jade was stunning and beautiful, would do anything for anyone.

"She loved life, partying with her girlfriends, always smiling."

Police have said it was raining heavily at the time of the crash, although the reasons for the car going out of control had "yet to be established".