Keith Bridges: My thoughts are always with the victims (From Bridgwater Mercury)

Keith Bridges: My thoughts are always with the victims

9:10am Wednesday 25th November 2009 in

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A FORMER police inspector who crashed his car in France after a heavy drinking session, killing his wife and three other passengers, including two from Bridgwater, has told a court his thoughts were “always” with his family and friends who died.

Keith Bridges, 52, formerly of Minehead, came off the road just yards from his home in the Dordogne region in June 2006.

He survived with a broken leg but his wife Julie, 42, her daughter Bethany Lowe, 10, family friend Andrew Dyer, 41, from Bridgwater, and his 10-year-old daughter Gabriella, died.

Bridges told the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Bergerac, about 30 miles from the scene of the crash: “Every day I try and find out what happened on that night. My thoughts are always with the family and my friends who have had to suffer as a result of this.

“In hindsight there may have been something I could have done.”

Bridges faces charges of manslaughter while drink-driving, speeding, and causing injury while driving a car under the influence of alcohol.

The group had been drinking heavily that evening at the home of another former police officer, Anthony Fuller, who lived nearby.

They had drunk around four bottles of wine, 22 small bottles of beer and at least a bottle of spirits in a cocktail mix before leaving Mr Fuller's house, shortly before 11pm.

An inquest at Taunton Crown Court last month heard how Bethany and Gabriella begged the adults not to drive the mile or so home - even suggesting they could drive themselves. But Bridges ignored their warnings, getting behind the wheel of his Jeep Cherokee.

The two children, who were sitting in the boot of the Jeep and were not wearing seat belts at the time of the accident, died instantly.

Mr Dyer's wife Tracey suffered multiple fractures and severe head injuries in the crash and was in intensive care for weeks. Her son Kieran, then four, and daughter Charlotte, then seven, survived with serious injuries.

Bridges, an officer with 30 years' experience, was given a blood alcohol test a few hours after the crash which revealed he was three times the French drink-drive limit and almost twice the UK limit.

The hearing ended on Tuesday night, but judgment will be given next month.