Insurer agrees to pay bereaved husband

LONDON, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- A British insurance company that refused to pay for the death of a young woman killed in a car crash because she smoked has agreed to settle.

David Webb of Letchworth in Hertfordshire -- who was in the car with his wife, Sarah, and their daughter when it was struck by another vehicle -- said the fight with the insurer, Legal & General, only added to his grief. Webb suffered a broken arm in the crash while his daughter was not injured.

"The last thing I needed was to have to fight my insurance company,” he told The Daily Mail. "It's been a terrible time -- they should be ashamed."

When the Webbs applied for life insurance, Sarah said she was a non-smoker. Webb said his wife had smoked in the past but gave it up when she decided to have a baby.

The other driver, Charles Brown, was convicted of manslaughter. He was reportedly distraught because his girlfriend had broken up with him, and was driving the wrong way on a major road at 90 mph in a suicide attempt.