Death-crash officer 'always thinks' of victims
Keith Bridges came off the road yards from his home in the village of Berbiguieres, 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 in Somerset, and his 10-year-old daughter Gabriella died.
The 52-year-old former Avon and Somerset Police officer, who ignored his stepdaughter's pleas not to get behind the wheel, took to the road at around 11pm, after a "convivial" evening with family friends.
They had drunk around four bottles of wine, 22 small bottles of beer and at least a bottle of spirits in a cocktail mix.
An inquest in Taunton last month was told how Bethany and Gabriella begged the adults not to drive the mile or so home – even suggesting they could drive themselves.
But Bridges ignored warnings and less than 150 metres from his farmhouse, his Jeep Cherokee ploughed off the road.
Giving evidence yesterday during his trial at the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Bergerac, he said in "hindsight", there "may have been something" he could have done to avoid 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," he said.
Earlier, the court was told how the group set off for dinner at around 7pm on the evening of June 7 in Bridges' overloaded Jeep.
Several hours later, after enjoying a cold buffet and red wine, they piled back into the car to make their way home.
But minutes later, Bridges lost control of the vehicle on a bend.
Bridges said he felt the car gaining speed as he approached the bend – something he attributed to a mechanical failing.
Police estimated Bridges was driving at about 62mph – well over the advisable limit of 43mph.
Bridges, an officer with 30 years' experience, was given a blood alcohol test a few hours later which revealed he was three times the French drink-drive limit.
A subsequent examination of the vehicle found no mechanical failings.
Jean-Luc Gadaud, prosecuting, said: "This was the act of a man who shouldn't have done what he did."
Bridges, a "talented driver" who was part of a special police unit which transported VIPs like the Royal Family, could not explain why he had overloaded the car.
Edouard Knoll, acting for Bethany's father, Gary Goldston-Lowe, in a civil action which runs alongside the criminal trial, said Bridges could have asked family friend Anthony Fuller, who had not been drinking, for a lift home that night.
Mr Dyer's wife, Tracey, suffered multiple fractures and severe head injuries in the crash and was in intensive care for weeks.
Her son Kieron, then four, and daughter Charlotte, then seven, survived with serious injuries.
Bridges is accused of "homicide involontaire" – a charge akin to manslaughter – while drink-driving.
He is also charged with speeding and causing injury while driving a car under the influence of alcohol.
Mr Gadaud called for a four-year suspended sentence and for Bridges to be banned from driving for seven years.
Judges will return a verdict on December 15.
