A young dad who accepted a lift home from a drunk friend has been left paralysed from the neck down after a horror crash which killed two people.
Greg Sumner, 26, got into a BMW with “bladdered” pal Vincent Atkinson after a boozy night out.
But Vincent lost control on a bend at 70mph while racing another car and smashed into an on-coming vehicle driven by father-of-two Richard Parker, 35.
Mr Parker, who was heading to work, and father-of-two Vincent, 31, were both killed instantly.
Greg’s family were told he was two hours from death after shattering 27 bones and he spent five months in a coma.
Four years later the former sales manager now lives in a neuro-rehabilitation unit where he has had to learn how to talk again.
And after regaining his voice he is devoting his shattered life to deterring others from drink-driving.
Despite needing help from carers to do everything, he now shares his story in schools, Army barracks, colleges and universities.
Greg, father to five year-old Alfie Stamp, said: “I can never make up for two men being dead, but I can try my best to do what I can.
“I just want people to, when they are getting in their car or their friend’s car, to think back to me and re-consider it.
“Before this crash I was the ultimate lad. I was out at least three or four nights a week and I did lots of drinking, lots of partying and saw lots of girls.
“This has brought a full stop to all of that. I can’t move a muscle at all and I can’t do anything for myself.
“As a dad, I’m very very upset – I’m really gutted about simple things like the fact I won’t be able to play football with Alfie.
“When I was a kid, I remember I was baffled by how my dad could run so quickly, but my son will never have that.
“When he falls over and hurts his knee, I won’t be able to pick him up.
“The astronomical price of bending the rules slightly was that two men died and four kids are going to grow up without fathers.”
The horrific crash happened on the A371 nr Axbridge, Somerset in October 2012.
Greg emerged from his coma five months later unable to move, speak and his heart having stopped four times.
Greg, who is now in a rehab unit in Brislington, Bristol, added: “Both drivers died instantly in the crash and I was very close to being dead.
“For the first two months of me being in a coma, the doctors were telling my family, ‘He will die in the next two hours.’ They couldn’t give me more than two hours.
“When I woke up, I couldn’t talk and I was trying to piece together what had happened. I thought I had been asleep and that all my family had been exaggerating.
“Maybe six days later, me and my brother were sitting there one night and the news came on.
“It said that it was February, and I knew the crash had happened in October. That was when the penny dropped and I realised how serious it was.
“I asked where Vinny was, the driver, and my dad just said, ‘He didn’t make it.’
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
