A police officer has recounted going to the scene of a fatal crash in the hopes of preventing drink driving at this weekend’s Food and Music Festival.

The officer posted on the Kingsbridge Police Facebook page: “Not a year goes by without, unfortunately, somebody being arrested for drink driving during the music festival. Thought I’d share this again to try and break the cycle.”

Here is the account in full:

Let me tell you a story about drink driving.

I used to be a Police Officer in Central London.

It was a Saturday night and I was working in plain clothes on the robbery squad. A call came out to a huge brawl at a wedding in Kilburn. Everybody from the station ended up going to it but as I was on a plain clothes unit we didn’t go - it can get confusing and people don’t know if we’re police or not.

A call then came out to a possible RTC [Road Traffic Collision] on the off-slip of the A40 at Paddington. A local resident had heard a bang and presumed there had been a car crash but they hadn’t seen anything. None of the marked units were free to go. It wasn’t really a job for me and my crew mate but we went anyway to see if we could help.

As we arrived I saw a car on it’s roof. The engine was still on and the exhaust was pumping out fumes. I checked in the car but it was empty. The windscreen had blown out. Had somebody run off from this or were they injured?

I remember the CD player blaring out drum and bass amazingly loud that I could feel the vibrations in my chest. We started searching and calling out. I called on the radio to see if anyone could help us but everybody was committed with the wedding still. I couldn’t see anything obvious then checked over some railings.

There I saw the lifeless body of a teenage girl. Linda, my crew-mate then called out saying she had found someone about 20 metres away in a ditch.

I jumped over the railings and went to the girl. She was about 17. I remember her so well.

A beautiful black girl wearing her best clothes. We’re all trained in first aid but when confronted with injuries like this, we’re pretty useless. She was breathing; not proper breathing but gasping. Her eyes were open but her pupils were blown. Her limbs were bent in the wrong direction. There was very little blood, but I could see synovial fluid coming out of her ears.

It was obvious that she had a significant brain injury. I called for help on the radio and an ambulance was dispatched and police traffic units from Euston. For some unknown reason, I told her to lie still - why I did that I don’t know. She wasn’t going anywhere.

After what seemed like a lifetime, an ambulance arrived. I’d been doing CPR on her as she couldn’t breath properly but all the time I knew I was just delaying the inevitable. Others then turned up and took over from me so I did what I thought was best.

I held her hand and told her she would be OK.

The ambulance took her and her friend to St Mary’s hospital which was a stones throw away and Linda and I stayed where we were, both a little stunned.

A little while later, a guy came running up the road. He was the girl’s brother. He had gone to pick her up from a party in Neasden. She’d called him asking for a lift. She said that her friend who was supposed to be driving them home had been drinking and she didn’t want to get in the car with her, so he said he’d come and get her.

For some reason she must have changed her mind and got in the car with her. I had to tell the brother what had just happened and then took him to the hospital.

Both those girls died. Needlessly.

Although you may feel like you are safe to drive, if you’ve been drinking then you probably aren’t.

My hands are shaking as I write this. It brings back such vivid memories.

Please don’t drink and drive. Please don’t get in a car with someone who has been drinking.