Garth

It was October 6, 2016. I was on my way to work, driving my normal route that I had taken every morning for four months. Admittedly, I had been speeding and was doing a number of dangerous over-taking manoeuvres.

Just after 9am, after an hour or so driving and five minutes away from my destination, I was suddenly faced with a van crossing the A road I was driving along. I swerved to avoid it, but in doing so crashed head-on into another vehicle.

Everything after that is a blur. My earliest memory is waking out of a coma two-weeks later. I suffered a head injury that damaged my frontal lobes and was left with amnesia for weeks following.

Luckily, the other driver only suffered minor injuries but he was travelling with his family and I could have easily killed them too. He's had to deal with the psychological effects of the accident and his car was a write-off.

I was very seriously injured and broke in the region of 25-30 bones. I could have been killed. I was cut out of my car and airlifted to hospital. I believe that I would not be alive to tell the tale if the emergency services and NHS hadn't done such an amazing job.

Speed was definitely a factor, if not the cause of the accident. My dangerous driving was witnessed by other drivers prior to the accident. If I had been driving carefully it wouldn't have happened.

I spent three months in hospital and am still recovering mentally and physically, trying to rebuild my strength as well as my life. I was off work for the full statutory 28 weeks and lost at least £15,000 in lost earnings after tax.

"Speed definitely kills. I know because I knocked on death's door."

The whole ordeal has cost my family even more financial loss but more significantly, permanent emotional trauma, which I can never forgive myself for.

If I had just continued carefully and patiently along the last stretch of my daily commute that unforgettable morning along a familiar A road, the accident nor the repercussions would have occurred.

While searching for new employment in March, I received a summons to court charged with dangerous driving. Other drivers had witnessed me overtaking a chain of cars and jeep towing a trailer of sheep, recklessly and for a prolonged period of time, prior to the collision. This was evidence enough that I was in fact driving erratically and irresponsibly, highlighted by the fact that I caused other vehicles to swerve out of the way in order to avoid me. Witnesses had estimated that I had been travelling at 70-80mph on a 60mph road.

As a result, having slightly recovered physically and mentally, legal proceedings ensued concluding in a terrifying appearance at crown court, facing a possible two-year prison sentence for a few seconds bad driving. It cost myself and my family another £10,000 in legal costs and nearly cost me my career, which itself has taken a huge blow. I received a suspended sentence in June.

It only takes a split second for something unbelievably unfortunate to happen that could impact oneself or indeed others and their families, for the rest of their lives.

By speeding you have little control over your vehicle, which is a powerful and dangerous machine. You have less time to think, let alone react, and neither do other drivers who are impacted by your actions. Speed definitely kills. I know because I knocked on death's door.

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