A MEMORIAL plaque for Newport teenager Michael Smith is to be erected this week at the site of the car crash in which he was killed.

Michael, 18, died a year ago, on September 5.

The car he and two friends were travelling in smashed into a brick pillar outside the Nightfreight offices on Card-iff Road.

The plaque will say: 'Michael R Smith, in loving memory, who died here on September 5, 2002. You'll Never Walk Alone.'

His devastated parents Maurice and Lesley buried Michael at St Woolos Cemetery, alongside his brother Stanley who died from leukaemia in 1989.

Michael, who was just five at the time, tried to save his brother's life by donating his bone marrow.

Mrs Smith said: "The past year has been so hard, and this anniversary will be the hardest.

"They say time heals, but for me it is just getting through each day, one at a time. "The thing with Stanley was that he had been ill, but with Michael, we saw him at quarter to eleven, and then an hour later there was a knock at the door to say he had been in an accident."

Mrs Smith left her home in Mallard Way in February and moved to nearby Sandpiper Way.

"I had a lot of good memories at that house, but bad ones too. I wanted a clean break, but did not want to leave Duffryn.

"The people here have been great, and my neighbours have been so supportive, I cannot thank them enough."

The driver of the car on that fateful September night received a community punishment order and 18-month driving ban, after pleading guilty to driving without due care and attention.

The youth, who was 16 at the time, of the accident, had no licence or insurance.

At the inquest into Michael's death, Gwent coroner David Bowen described some of the actions leading up to the tragedy as "foolhardy".

"I thought he should have gone to jail," said Mrs Smith. "But that was not for me to decide.

"But I think after this anniversary is over, and with the court case and inquest complete, hopefully there will be a sense of closure."