AT moments of profound grief, mere words seem powerless to express our feelings.

The funeral of 15-year-old schoolboy Joel Corner yesterday was one such moment.

"Our beautiful brown-haired child has moved on to the next life, but our emptiness will continue to the day we die," Joel's father Lee said, speaking through his tears.

No parent, hearing those words, could fail to feel the pain that prompted them. No human being could fail to feel the deepest sympathy.

The 15-year-old, of course, was not the only one to die in that awful road accident on Thursday last week.

As well as Joel's "soul mate" Daniel Wright, like Joel aged only 15, the crash also claimed the life of Press van driver Peter Alexander, a respected and well-liked colleague to all those of us who work at this newspaper.

Their lives are to be mourned no less than that of Joel. Their families are every bit as bereft as his.

The Press was criticised in some quarters for the way in which we reported these three deaths. Some readers felt we were too sympathetic to the boys who lost their lives.

But moments of tragedy such as this are not the time for blame. At 15, it is true that Joel was below the age at which he should have been behind the wheel of a car on a public road. It may, as the Rev David Goodhew said yesterday, have been a "moment's foolishness" which cost Joel and the others their lives. As far as we know, the van driver, our colleague Peter Alexander, was entirely blameless.

But blame is something for an inquest to decide. For now, let us all just extend our deepest sympathies to three families all equally overwhelmed by grief.

Updated: 10:12 Friday, April 28, 2006