Off-duty police officer rescues man from A180 crash

OFF-duty constable Pete Musgrave has been praised for his fast response which could hopefully have saved the life of a seriously-injured motorist.

The Laceby Road police station beat manager was driving home along the A180 in the early hours of Saturday and came across some wood debris on the westbound carriageway near the Great Coates interchange.

Thanks to the alert officer he was able to spot damage to trees on the verge of the dual carriageway.

He stopped and raised the alarm and then discovered a BMW driver with multiple fractures slumped outside his badly-wrecked saloon car. He had been thrown from his car due to the impact with a number of trees in a copse about one mile west of the Great Coates interchange.

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As reported on www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk, the driver is a 31-year-old from the Grimsby area.

He was taken to Hull Royal Infirmary, where, he was last night in a serious but stable condition.

Pc Musgrave, who lives in Scunthorpe, said: "I looked at the tree line and could see there were clean breaks in the wood.

"I suspected something had happened and stopped in the next layby to ring it in before I doubled back.

"When I got back to the scene and walked closer down the embankment, I could see the wreckage of the car. It had gone through a line of trees and broken them.

"The car had completely disintegrated and in the pitch black I could hear someone. They were clearly in a lot of pain.

I could tell he was very poorly. Due to the impact, he had been ejected from the car.

"There was a smell of petrol and there was steam coming from the engine."

A Humberside Police traffic car was on the scene within minutes and East Midlands Ambulance Service paramedics arrived quickly, along with Humberside Fire and Rescue Service fire crews.

The westbound carriageway of the A180 was closed until about 8am for crash investigators to conduct their enquiries and establish a cause of the single vehicle crash.

As the car was hidden in the dip, the vehicle and driver could have gone unnoticed.

Pc Musgrave said: "Given how he was found, it was always a possibility he could have gone unnoticed as cars pass by at 70 mph and drivers are concentrating on the road.

"I was just in the right place at the right time. Is it fate? I'm not sure."

He told how normally his shift would have finished at 11pm but due to another incident, he did not end his shift until nearly 2am, and came across the scene shortly after that.

Pc Musgrave also praised two girls, possibly 19 or 20 years of age, who stopped to give assistance before the arrival of the emergency services.

Inspector Andrew Dixon of Humberside Police said: "Fortunately the officer was going home after his shift. He was able to call the incident in and stop to have a closer look.

"The natural instinct of the officer caused him to stop. It is part of his job. Some people would have just driven past. It could have been a lot worse had the officer not stopped. He has reacted quickly and well."

Updates will appear on www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk