What a year

10:00am Saturday 30th December 2006

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There was a grim toll of death on the county's roads during 2006 as the number of fatalities soared to a 16-year high of 68.

December was the worst month of the year, with an average of four fatalities a week recorded in the days leading up to Christmas.

One of the most horrific accidents was in August, when Malcolm and Janice Dowling and their two children George and Richard, from Staffordshire, were killed on the A34 while returning home from a holiday in France. Police fined drivers and passengers for taking photographs. Motorists also faced months of congestion at the Green Road roundabout in Headington, as work finally began on the so-called 'hamburger' linking the two sections of the A40. The Oxford Mail received numerous letters about the roadworks.

The works were completed on time and on budget in December, although many Barton residents still face long delays getting off the estate. Other schemes included resurfacing of Oxford's High Street and the completion of work on the northern A34.

It was a year of highs and lows - both on the pitch and off the pitch - for fans of Oxford United. Back in February, it was clear the writing was on the wall for chairman Firoz Kassam, as he addressed a supporters' meeting and admitted to the fans that he had failed them. Supporters' group OxVox had demanded the chairman should "change his ways or move aside".

The next month, Brian Talbot was sacked, becoming the eighth manager to leave under Kassam's regime as the U's clung one place above the relegation drop zone. On March 22, Mr Kassam waved goodbye to Oxford United as Nick Merry, from Woodstock, took over.

On May 6, a 3-2 defeat by Leyton Orient saw the U's relegated to the Nationwide Conference after 44 years in the League, but supporters and the Oxford Mail refused to be downcast.

On June 14, we asked all fans to wear yellow 'Oxford Loyal' wristbands, with profits split between the Oxford Children's Hospital Campaign and Oxford United's youth development squad. On August 12, United chalked up a 2-0 victory over Halifax Town.

On November 25, £1,736.25 from the sale of the wristbands was presented to the Children's Hospital in Oxford.

And on Boxing Day, 11,065 people turned up to watch the 0-0 draw against Woking, the largest ever Conference crowd.

There were many heroes in Oxfordshire during 2006 who helped make a difference to people's lives. The year began with two bus drivers from rival bus companies joining forces to rescue a young couple from a burning flat on January 9.

Bruce Coppen, 31, from the Oxford Bus Company, and Dennis Ratcliffe, of Stagecoach, raced to the rescue when they spotted smoke billowing from the balcony of a flat overlooking Gloucester Green coach station. The bus workers later received Vodafone Lifesaver bravery awards for their actions.

There was also bravery on show from people in Blackbird Leys who turned up at Blackbird Leys Community Centre to start a journey that would lead them to performing at the Royal Albert Hall, and later in front of the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

They were plucked from obscurity to starring in a Five TV documentary, The Singing Estate, after an X Factor-style audition in January.

In February, we told the moving story of mum Bahar Kadyrova, who bought her six-year-old daughter Gulshat, all the way to Oxford from Turkmenistan in Asia.

Oxford Mail readers helped her to raise vital funds for an operation at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre to help her daughter to walk. In December, we reported how she was starting dance classes.

On May 8, air force personnel and Benson villagers were mourning the deaths of two officers from RAF Benson, who died in an Iraq helicopter tragedy. Flight Lt Sarah-Jayne Mulvihill, 32, and Wing Cdr John Coxen, 46, were among the five people killed in Basra on May 6.

There were hundreds of individual heroes on August 17, when students across the county were celebrating being part of a record A-Level year. More pupils than ever before scored top grades, with headteachers singing their praises.

There were also a number of high-profile court cases during 2006, as people faced justice for some brutal crimes that shocked the county.

On March 22, Brian Smart, who stabbed his estranged wife Sarah to death at their Oxford home while their three children slept upstairs, began a life sentence for murder.

A jury decided that Smart killed her in cold blood, in what Judge Julian Hall called a "few moments of savage violence", on January 5 last year, in Barton Village Road, Barton.

On April 10, 45-year-old nurse Angela Dublin was sentenced to two years at Oxford Crown Court after causing the deaths of four young people in Oxford's Eastern Bypass crash last year. The court heard how Dublin had seven children in her car before she lost control and veered across Oxford's Eastern Bypass in May last year - killing three of the youngsters Marshall Haynes, Josh Bartlett, Liam Hastings, all 13, and student Howard Hillsdon, 21, who was driving along the other carriageway.

On April 18, nurse Benjamin Geen, pictured, who poisoned his patients and then made a twisted bid to save them, was found guilty of murdering two and wounding 15 others.

Geen, 25, was convicted at Oxford Crown Court of killing Anthony Bateman, 65, from Banbury, and David Onley, 75, from Deddington, while working as an accident and emergency nurse at The Horton Hospital in Banbury in January 2004.

On October 20, a jealous ex-husband who murdered his former wife's new man started a 30-year jail sentence. Allan Kimber, 41, of Stert Street, Abingdon, was convicted of shooting Gary Morgan yards from his home at Danesbrook Farm, Stanton St John, on October 17 last year.

On December 19, killer Michael Humphries was convicted of murdering Oxford academic Dr Barbara Johnston. A trial at Oxford Crown Court heard that he had stabbed the academic 49 times, beaten her and strangled her.

The organisers of Oxford Gang Show got a shock in February, when arsonists destroyed most of its stage sets at its headquarters in William Kimber Crescent, Headington - but the show still went on.