On the 4th December 2014 at approximately 5:45am my brother Joshua was involved in a horrific car crash that almost cost him his life. The crash happened on the A361 Doulting Hill near Shepton Mallet whilst my brother was on his way to work. My brother was travelling at the speed limit of 30mph. My brother was travelling from Frome to Evercreech. On approach to the site of the crash he came around a right hand bend and past a cemetery whilst the Mercedes that crashed into him was travelling in the opposite direction.

On their side of the road, the road bends round to the left and is a blind bend. The Mercedes driver had decided to overtake a Renault on this blind bend and so was on my brothers side of the road. Josh tried to avoid colliding with the vehicle by entering the opposite carriageway. He had determined that because of the speed of the other driver, he would not be able to get back into his lane in time before colliding with my brother in his lane. The Mercedes driver then swerved at the last second back into his lane and collided with the drivers side of my brothers car.

The hospital later determined the total impact speed of the 2 vehicles was well in excess of 80mph, meaning that the Mercedes driver was speeding at the time of the collision. The force of the collision would send Josh's car back around 50-70 feet into a ditch and almost through a hedge. The Renault driver ended up in front of the Mercedes as they had to swerve and take evasive action to not be involved in the crash.

The emergency services were called by a witness to the collision who would mysteriously disappear in the police report, but I will explain more on that later. The fire brigade, air ambulance, road ambulance and police were all in attendance. The fire brigade had to put out a fire inside my brothers car before having to cut Josh from the wreckage of his car. Josh seemed to have managed a couple of words to the emergency responders before passing out and soon after being put under anaesthetic whilst he was freed from his car.

The reason he had to be cut from the car was not only due to the wreckage but the engine block had dislodged, come through the drivers console and crushed my brothers torso and legs. Once he was freed from the wreckage the paramedics and air ambulance doctor had to intubate him before transporting him by road to Bath Royal United Hospital to be stabilised. He was deemed not able to be air lifted to hospital as they had to work to stabilise him whilst en-route to Bath.

Once Josh had reached Bath RUH he had to undergo a procedure to repair a punctured lung and be further stabilised prior to being transported to Bristol Southmead Hospital. My mum had phoned me at some point during the morning to inform me of my brothers crash and to tell me to get ready to travel as we were being transported to the airport by Cleveland Police.

A police officer arrived and he transported me and my mum on blue lights to Teesside Airport where a police helicopter was ready and waiting for us to arrive so that they could fly us to Birmingham Airport where the West Midlands Police would transport us by police helicopter to Bristol Southmead Hospital. We arrived at Bristol Southmead at approximately 11:30am. The reason we were transported by police and police helicopter was that my brothers injuries were so severe that they feared he would die from his injuries before we would arrive there.

Josh was placed in a medically induced coma, presumably whilst in Bath RUH as they had found a bleed on his brain and the pressure in his brain was climbing to a dangerously high level. When we entered the hospital and were escorted to my brothers bedside we could not believe the state that he was in. Doctors, paramedics, nurses and everyone involved with the initial aftermath of Josh's crash were quite frankly amazed that Josh had even survived this long, such were the extent of his injuries.

On his first day in hospital he was quickly taken to the surgical unit to be fully assessed and then he would undergo approximately 10 hours of life saving surgery to deal with his most severe injuries. He went for surgery at approximately 1:30pm and we didn't see him again until approximately 11:30pm.

His list of injuries were extensive and I will detail below:

• Bleed on the brain

• One side of his nose was hanging off

• Josh bit halfway through his tongue

• He had a ballooning artery under his right collar bone (repaired by taking a vein from his groin and fusing it to the existing artery)

• Broken right collar bone

• Broken sternum which was repaired with metal wire during surgery

• Most of his ribs were broken, one of which pierced his right lung

• Several holes in his bowel

• Broken femur on his right leg which was repaired with a titanium plate and screws

• Hole in his left knee (a drain would be placed to remove the crash debris and later a skin flap operation was needed)

• Broken tibia in his right leg

• Completely crushed right foot (repaired with a titanium plate and screws/pins)

In total Josh had to have 4 major surgeries to repair all of his injuries and spent a total of 5 weeks in Bristol Southmead Hospital. Three days after the crash we were awoken by the surgical consult who said we urgently needed to come with him as Josh's blood pressure had dropped so low that they feared he may die that morning. This would happen another twice in the coming days and the third and final time that it happened we were told that he was on the maximum of everything they could give him so if he crashed again there would be nothing they could do for him.

Thankfully he managed to pull through and eventually he was able to be roused from his induced coma and remain awake. This had been attempted previously but the pressure in his brain started to climb so they had to put him back into an induced coma for a while. After 5 weeks in the hospital he was stable enough and had recovered enough to be transferred to James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough where he would discharge himself from a day later.

No charges were actually brought against the driver that caused the crash as Avon and Somerset Police were content with blaming my brother for the crash despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. To be perfectly honest the entire police report was full of inconsistencies. First of all there were 4 cars involved in the crash, Josh's car, the Mercedes, the Renault and a car that was travelling behind Josh.

This then quickly changed to 3 cars and the car that was travelling behind Josh had mysteriously disappeared along with its driver. Then apparently the person who had phoned the emergency services was an off duty police officer who was on the scene within seconds of the crash happening despite living between quarter to a half mile back up Doulting Hill back in the direction that Josh had travelled from. The Renault driver was not the off duty police officer just an innocent motorist. We believe that this was the mysterious fourth car that had disappeared from the police investigators report.

There was never a statement provided by this mysterious fourth driver as to how the crash happened and the off duty police officer only made a statement on the aftermath of the crash despite our belief that he was the driver travelling behind Josh when the crash happened as there was no way he could have been on scene that quickly without driving to the scene and nothing in the police report states that there was a fourth car present in the aftermath of the collision.

Josh now has life changing injuries including walking with a severe limp on his right foot, not being able to walk for very long due to severe pain and not being able to put his right foot flat on the floor because of how badly it was crushed, despite it being repaired with plates. He is also still coming to terms with his injuries and is very self conscious about his scars. Not long after he returned home to Somerset to be with our dad he had a short time where he became severely depressed and strongly considered taking his own life.

Again, apologies for the length of this page but I felt it very important to share his story and to explain why I have launched the safe driving side of Mot;v8 Peer Support. Thank you for reading.