A WOMAN who was first on the scene of a car crash in Drybrook on Saturday says she didn’t want the driver to be alone.

Sophie Richardson and her partner stayed with the 38-year-old man from Hartpury after spotting his car ploughed into a tree with smoke billowing out near Harrow Hill.

Vicar Nick Bromfield, who lives nearby, said prayers at the roadside before the man was airlifted to Southmead Hospital in Bristol with life threatening head injuries. He died a day later.

Sophie, who is from Coleford, told the Review: “My partner and I were travelling back from his parents’ house when we noticed a car in the trees. We couldn’t see a police aware sign prompting a bad feeling between my partner and I so we turned around to make sure no one was inside the car. Unfortunately there was so we did as much as we could until help arrived. We didn’t see the crash but I don’t think it had happened long before we found him.

“It was awful. I’m just glad he wasn’t alone and we managed to help him from the time I was on the phone receiving advice on what to do to the time the paramedics arrived.

“One person stopped to help us with my children, who were waiting in the car, while her husband managed the traffic until the emergency services arrived. My partner and I were a bit in shock to say the least.”

Sophie added: “I’m gutted he didn’t make it. May you now rest in peace.”

Rev Bromfield, who is vicar at the Forest Church in Drybrook said: “I heard this loud bang and rushed to see what had happened. I’m not a medic and I didn’t want to get in the way – all I could do was offer spiritual and moral support to the paramedics. My thoughts are now with his friends and family.”

Rev Bromfield added: “It’s very sad that another life has been claimed almost a year after somebody else died there.”

The crash comes nearly a year after 20-year-old Benjamin Cuthbert, from Cinderford, lost his life following a head-on smash near the same spot.

Gloucestershire Police are appealing for witnesses to the single vehicle collision on the A4136 close to the junction with Oakland

Road at approximately 5.50pm. The man was driving a dark green Ford Fiesta.

Anyone who saw the incident or the car prior to the incident should call 101 and quote incident 379 of July 2.

The road reopened at 11.30pm.