Crash victim mum tells her story to promote safety
5 February 2019, 09:21 | Updated: 5 February 2019, 09:34
A mum who was involved in a car crash with her son is helping to promote road safety in Gloucestershire.
Dashcam footage has been released of what should have been a routine drive home after work, but turned into a terrifying experience when their car overturned on an icy road between Gloucester and Stroud.
Katie Jarvis, the passenger, takes up the story: ''At that moment the car just felt like it was flying. It took off and just went straight over.
''It doesn't sound very long but we hit the bank; we turned over; and then we turned over again.
'here are two things I remember. When we first turned over I thought: I'm still alive but we haven't finished yet. We're still trying to lose 50 miles an hour. Am I going to be alive in the next second? I knew we were still moving, we hadn’t come to a standstill and I didn’t know what was going to happen next.
''Worse than that, I had my child beside me. I have never been so pleased to hear him use bad language because I knew he was still alive. But when we came to a standstill, he went quiet. I knew I was alive but I didn't know what had happened to him.
''It felt like forever before he answered me and said I'm fine''.
Luckily Katie and her 20-year-old son Miles escaped severely shaken but otherwise unscathed and were pulled from the wreckage by passers-by.
Whilst Miles' response has been to train as a retained fire fighter, to go to the aid of other accident victims, Katie is about to go through it all again as one of the presenters of What if..?, a safer driving campaign started by Gloucestershire’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), working alonside Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service, Gloucestershire Constabulary, Great Western Air Ambulance Charity, the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, the Severn Major Trauma Network.
PCC Martin Surl said, ''I am not only grateful but also full of admiration for Katie and all the other contributors, including many who have lost sons and daughters in completely avoidable crashes, who are prepared to re-live their worst experiences in the hope others will be spared''.
Gloucestershire County Councillor David Norman, cabinet member for Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue (GFRS), said ''It's quite sobering to hear stories like Katie's; crews from GFRS are all too often called to road traffic collisions so we will do all we can to make people think about their behaviour behind the wheel, and avoid causing harm to themselves or others.''
The What if…? Campaign targets novice and learner drivers in schools and colleges around the county between the ages of 17-24, the age group most at risk of being involved in a serious car crash.
So far, it has been seen by around 10,000 students. A further 4,000 are expected to attend during its forthcoming run.
