If only you had not been speeding – stark message from ex-Whitby police officer

I’m a member of Love Whitby Admin on Facebook but 20 years ago I was a member of the North Yorkshire Police Traffic section based in Whitby, until retirement.

Just to remind you, I was one of the people that attended your injury accidents on the roads in and around the Whitby area and throughout the North Yorkshire area.

If only you had not been speeding.

I was the one who drove at breakneck speeds to get to your accident where a collision had occurred by a speeding inattentive driver.

I was the one who safeguarded the accident scene from further collisions often at risk from other motorists who blatantly ignored traffic directions and road closed signs.

I was the one who got it in the neck because the road was closed and you were unable to pass along the road because people were trapped in their cars seriously or fatally injured.

If only you had not been speeding.

I was the one who dealt with the injured and then assisted the Ambulance and Fire Service in extracting crying, bleeding casualties from the damaged and sometimes on fire vehicles.

If only you had not been speeding.

I was the one who knocked on your door at any time of the day and night to pass on the frightful news that your loved one had died in an accident earlier in the day due to the speed of your loved one’s car or an offending car .

If only you had not been speeding.

I was the one who had to sit with you and obtain personal information of your deceased loved one while you were in the state of grief having just received the worst news possible.

I was the one who liaised with you throughout the Coroners procedure and tried to comfort you.

If only ‘you’ the driver had not been speeding.

I am the one who, even after 20 years, can drive along the roads in and around Whitby and further afield and can tell you each location, bend, dip in the road, hill brow, bridge etc where each and everyone has seen the scene of a fatal or very serious road accident, many caused by speeding vehicles and or drivers over the prescribed limit.

If only you had not been speeding.

Yes, I was the one who stood at the roadside and pointed at you with a radar gun in the hope you would reduce your speed and drive within the constraints of the speed limit along that road.

If only you had not been speeding. I was the one who would pull you over to point out you were exceeding the speed limit to be met with a tirade of abuse, swearing and disgusting insults.

I did feel angry that you reacted as you did but sorry for you that you didn’t feel responsible for your actions while driving your vehicle and your comments that I would be better off employing my time arresting burglars. I felt sorry and sympathy for your loved ones when some time later I knocked on their doors to inform them you had been speeding, caused an accident and you had received fatal injuries and were now lying on a cold slab in the mortuary.

If only you had not been speeding.

I was the one who attended the mortuary to allow your mum to see if the body on the slab was yours. I offered what comfort I was able but it’s never enough.

Your mum is distraught.

“How did this happen?” she asks as she sobs looking at your lifeless form.

Speed, I believe, was involved, I quietly explain.

If only you had not been speeding.

So life goes on, people will drive, people will speed, people will die, you will die if you speed or you may kill someone else.

It’s a fact of life, I have witness to it, it’s in my experience If only you had not been speeding.