A SIX-MONTH-OLD baby girl has tragically died after her pram was struck by a car in a multi-storey car park in Tenby, Pembrokeshire.

Sophia Kelemen, described as “smiley and bubbly,” suffered catastrophic brain injuries in the collision on Thursday (Jan 2). Despite being airlifted to a Cardiff hospital, the injuries proved fatal.

Sophia’s family, from Greater Manchester, had been on holiday in Wales and were preparing to head home when the incident occurred.

Her father, Alex Kelemen, 27, told the BBC: “Just before we got to the car, the horror movie started.

“It’s been horrific to see our little daughter lying in that hospital bed and going through all those procedures. Everybody loved her—our friends, our family. She’s always going to live in my heart. I know she’s watching over me every day.”

Sophia’s parents now face the heartbreaking task of explaining the tragedy to their five-year-old son, Lucas.

“He’s been asking about his little sister every day,” said Mr Kelemen. “The hardest thing I’ve ever done is explain to him that God loved his sister more than we did. I told him that God gave Sophia a new pair of wings so she could fly above him and protect him.

“There are things I just don’t know how to explain to him. He’s our only child now, and everything we do is for him.”

Family’s heartbreak

Sophia’s aunt, Adriana Kelemen, recounted the devastating events to the Manchester Evening News.

“They were on a short break in Wales with family friends,” she said. “It was their last day. They’d been out, and then they went to the supermarket.

“It happened in the car park. The pram Sophia was in was destroyed.”

Support for devastated family

Fundraising efforts are now underway to support Sophia’s family. Two GoFundMe pages—one in English and one in Romanian—have been launched to cover funeral costs and repatriation expenses. The family plans to bury Sophia in Romania.

Meanwhile, Flaviu Naghi, 33, from Wigan, has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving, as well as driving without a licence or insurance. He is due to appear at Swansea Crown Court on February 7.

Donations to assist the family can be made via the GoFundMe pages.

Pictured:

Tragic loss: Six-month-old Sophia Kelemen, pictured with dad Alex, died after her pram was hit by a car (Pic: Dyfed-Powys Police)

THE FIRST MINISTER OF WALES Eluned Morgan has welcomed today’s announcement from the UK Government of a multi-billion pound investment in Artificial Intelligence.

The UK Opportunities Action Plan, launched by Prime Minister Keir Starmer today, aims to drive economic growth, support public services and use intelligent technology to improve people’s every day lives. 

Wales is uniquely placed to benefit from the AI infrastructure plans, with work already underway to develop tech hubs, shared resources and data centres.

As part of the investment announced today, US technology giant Vantage Data Centers plans to invest over £12 billion across the UK, resulting in the creation of over 11,500 jobs. The Welsh Government has been working closely with Vantage since 2020 to support the development of its data centres in Wales.

It is expected that the lion’s share of the new investment from Vantage will be in Wales. The biggest investment will be in Bridgend, where the company plans to develop the former Ford factory site to become one of Europe’s largest data centre campuses.

The First Minister is keen to ensure Wales benefits from the investment in AI, saying:

“Today’s announcement, which includes a multi-billion pound investment in AI by some of the world’s biggest tech companies, is a huge boost in confidence for industry in Wales.

“We are seeing that AI is increasingly being used as a power for good, whether that’s increasing productivity or bringing smarter solutions to everyday problems.

“There can be enormous benefits to the economy in establishing the tech and wider infrastructure here in Wales. Industry leaders recognise that the conditions are right in Wales, with a government that will do what it can to make these plans a reality.

“This won’t happen overnight and it’s important that the infrastructure, data, skills and talent is in place to ensure that we all benefit from these solutions. There’s no question that Wales is in an excellent position to benefit, given the work that’s already in progress here.”

The Economy Secretary Rebecca Evans is leading a review to explore how Wales can capitalise on opportunities and develop Wales’ strengths in the development of AI-based technologies.

Over the past year, the Welsh Government has worked with other organisations to develop guidance to support Welsh public bodies in adopting AI in a responsible, safe and ethical way.

Wales has already seen evidence of the value of AI implementation in diagnostic care in the NHS, with a digital pathology platform for prostate and breast cancer detection led by Betsi Cadwaladr seeing a 13% increase in prostate cancer detection rates.

Estyn, the school inspectorate, is also undertaking a review of the use of Generative AI in schools, which will explore the potential benefits to schools, while also considering the challenges they pose.

A film student has discovered some priceless video footage of a wedding captured on 8mm film at a local country chapel way back  in October, 1966.

Following attempts to identify the couple, Martyn Forrester has now been able to share the footage with the bride as well as numerous members of the couple’s extended family. 

Martyn, who is a first year film student at the Met Film School in Manchester, discovered the discarded reel at the bottom of a box of oddments in an antiques shop in Cardigan’s Canolfan Teifi shopping arcade during a visit to the town over the Christmas period.

Eager to find out what it contained, Martyn bought the reel for £5, and returned to his home in Newcastle-under Lyme to begin scanning the 58-year-old footage.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Martyn told The Pembrokeshire Herald.

“The quality and colour was fantastic.  The first image was of a car driving down a country lane, and then I saw a bride and groom having confetti thrown over them.  

“The bride had blond hair, in a 1960s hairstyle, and the groom had short brown hair and he, and the other members of the groom’s party,  were wearing blue ties and had yellow flowers in their lapels.

The five-minute long film showed that the bridesmaids were wearing pink dressed and also contained footage of the bride visiting her parents’ home prior to the wedding as well as clips of the newlyweds’ enjoying their honeymoon in north Wales.

“I knew just how important this film would be to the couple as well as to their families, as it contains some very beautiful and personal footage relating to their wedding day,” continues Martyn.

“But I also knew just how difficult it was going to be to source them.”

And so Martyn began scouring some of Cardigan’s social media sites where he could begin sharing his finds.

“Within an hour of putting a post out,  I’d received over a hundred reactions and 80 shares, including from people who thought they may know the couple.”

These included the family of the late Griff James who, in October 1966, married his sweetheart, Beryl Evans, at Cilfowyr Chapel, near to the bride’s family farm in Llechryd.

Once Martyn completed scanning the film, he digitised it and sent google links out to the family members who quickly confirmed that the wedding was, indeed, that of Griff and Beryl James.

“It’s wonderful that the film has finally been viewed by so many members of their family, including the grandchildren, particularly when you consider that the reel had been more or less discarded in a box and was pretty worthless,” concluded Martyn.

“The family had no idea that the film had ever been made, so for them to see it after all these years, really is quite special.”

And what makes the story even more remarkable is that both Martyn’s family and members of Beryl’s family have been invited to attend a wedding in Paris later this year.

“Naturally we didn’t know each other before this happened, but it turns out that we have respective links with friends in Llangrannog, so we’ve all been invited to attend their wedding in Paris later this summer,” concluded Martyn.

“When you consider everything that’s happened since I visited that antique shop in Cardigan back in December, it really is quite remarkable.”