Singer, 27, killed in bus crash days before launching music career

Soriah Barry was just days away from a huge meeting with Apple Music.

The 27-year-old was at the start of a very promising singing career, with the streaming platform scouting her talent and wanting to release her songs.

But Soriah would never make it to the potentially life-changing rendezvous, after she was killed in a crash with a double-decker bus after dropping off a friend.

‘We have kept her room exactly as it was,’ Soriah’s mum Saphiatu told Metro.

‘The light is still on, her makeup powder is still everywhere. But after a few months everyone did say I needed to get rid of the KFC still up there.’

Pictures of Soriah, smiling with her three siblings are on nearly every wall of the family home. She is at a recording studio, at a family party or on holiday.

They said her life had been taken ‘in a blink of an eye’ just a week before she was set to clinch a deal to have her R&B songs on Apple Music.

Harrowing CCTV footage of the deadly crash at about 6.50am was played to the court, with the bus parked at a stop in Lea Bridge Road. Soriah’s car is seen veering towards it from the wrong side of the road.

Witnesses described a ‘bang like a firework’ before smoke billowed from the two vehicles. 

Accident investigators estimated she had been travelling at around 35mph on impact, having accelerated from 23mph two seconds before, the inquest was told.

Bus driver Elizabeth Kalegga said that she thought Soriah’s car had crossed the road to park in front of the bus.

However, the car ploughed into the bus throwing the driver to the ground.

The driver of the bus, the 308 between Clapton and Wanstead said in a statement: ‘I noticed the dark Audi was coming towards me. I assumed it was going to pull up to the kerb. I open the door to let a passenger on. I was violently thrown from the cab to the floor. 

‘I knelt down (outside the bus) to catch my breath … I was in shock, it was chaos.’

She added: ‘I’ve no idea who the Audi crashed into my bus, the road was clear.’

Witness Curtis Chrissafi had been walking to work when he heard the big bang ‘like a firework had gone off’.

He told how he went to the Audi to see if there was anyone he could help but Soriah was initially covered by the airbags. But then he spotted her. 

He said: ‘She tried to push the door open. I asked her if she was okay she faintly said no I’m not.’ 

The inquest heard how emergency devices including a doctor from HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) arrived. 

Dr Claire Park told the inquest that she and her team, aided initially by bystanders, fought to stabilise Soria after she went into cardiac arrest.

She was then taken to the Royal London Hospital where she died. 

Her cause of death was given as internal bleeding and severe damage to her liver. 

The inquest was told that the night before the incident Soria, described by friends as a ‘safe’ driver, had been to a party. She had just dropped a friend off when the collision took place. 

Toxicology reports showed that she was below the drink and drive limit. 

A nitrous oxide canister (laughing gas) was found by police in the car, but the inquest was told that it had been left in the vehicle by someone else in her friends’ group with no suggestion Soriah had used it. 

The coroner, Adam Smith, concluded she had not been wearing a seatbelt, but could not find any reason beyond speculation as to why Soria crashed.

The coroner told the court: ‘What I can say is that immediately beforehand Soriah was not sufficiently alert.

‘For approximately three seconds Soriah failed to take evasive action. I cannot say what caused Soriah’s lack of awareness.’  

He said that he accepted evidence that her car was mechanically sound and that medical attention given at the scene and at the hospital had been ‘appropriate’ and within an acceptable time frame. 

Her Aunt Malika Barry, who sat alongside Soriah’s mother during the inquest, told Metro: ‘Soriah’s life was taken in the blink of an eye. Everything was working well for her.

‘The music was going so well, she had a meeting with Apple Music and was going on Spotify. She was so talented and beautiful – she was the full package.’

In a statement from the family, including Soriah’s mother Saphiatu she was described as amazing and loyal’. 

It said: ‘Soriah was a loyal person always there for everyone in life. She was an aspiring singer. 

‘She was an inspiring person who would have a massive impression on you. She was very very loved. We will never get over this.

‘She was just an amazing person who will always be in our hearts.’

It took two hours for her to get to hospital. In this time, witnesses had filmed her lying on the road with her clothes open and uploaded it to TikTok.

The family believe she became distracted at the wheel of the car which would often veer to the side.

When seeing it was starting to drift, they believed she put her foot down on the accelerator rather than the brake.

‘She went from 23mph to 30mph in the space of a few seconds before crashing into the bus,’ her mum said.

Bystanders were first on the scene, and in the 999 calls heard by Metro, they tried desperately to lift her out of the car.

They can be heard lifting her together as a responder on the phone instructed them calmly on how to get her to safety as she drifted in and out of consciousness.

‘You need to listen to me very carefully, and get her out of the car,’ the 999 operator says.

‘This young lady is really quite poorly.’

Once police and paramedics arrived, the sense of urgency seemed to dissipate, according to neighbours who watched on.

Her family say this is because empty alcohol bottles and gas cannisters were found inside the car – but Soriah was well below the legal limit according to toxicology reports.

‘She had just gone on a weekend away with friends and the Airbnb said they had to take all their rubbish home with them, and it ended up in Soriah’s car,’ mum said.

She was finally driven to The Royal London Hospital through rush hour traffic, which her family say not only delayed her arrival but could have been avoided if they had set off earlier.

Soriah eventually arrived at 8.52am, two hours after the initial crash, with her mum already there waiting.

Saphiatu said: ‘It’s crazy to think I actually got there before her. Police came and picked me up at 8am and I spent ages waiting in family rooms before a surgeon told me nothing more could be done.’

During the operation for a lacerated liver, Soriah went into cardiac arrest another three times.

The family screamed when they were told the news, and has been working to live without her ever since.

‘She’s missing out on everything’

‘We just wish she was still here,’ her mum said. ‘Her goddaughter misses her as well, and her brother has had a baby girl.

‘She would have loved having them around so much. Babies couldn’t get enough of her.’

Apple Music has told the family and Soriah’s producer they would still like to upload her songs in her memory.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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