Brought memories flooding back even after all these years. I was there at the height of everything and saw first hand what was happening.
All the Motorcyclists from Reading (which included me) and Taplow were called out to grab a car each (rather than our bikes) and we desended on mass in Hungerford to help with the various tasks that had to be done.
Roger Brereton the traffic officer that was killed was a good buddy of mine and in fact I had only been talking to him half an hour before he went for his meal break with his crewmate Jim Wood (who appeared in the programme).
The devastation had to be seen to be believed, and I was one of those who helped recover Rogers body and his patrol car (23 points of entry, 12 points of exit) which was shot to pieces.
What made matters worse and something not commonly known, was that the patrol car was only about 2 weeks old, and the insurance company decided to rebuild it and put it back into service. Well you can imagine the uproar, and even back then Traffic division in Thames Valley was quite small and we all knew one another, so word soon got around and we threatened to put the car into the nearest Motorway overbridge and write it off properly if we ever got it back, so it was decided to return it to civillian spec and sell it on.
Took me about 5 years before I could actually stop in Hungerford, but seeing the programme tonight and many of my former colleagues (Eddy Shanks, my Sgt who died a year or so ago), Mick Moorby who has now retired, Pete Dudley my crewmate who is now retired (but was the star of Driving School with the Thames Valley students) brought it all back to me, and I remember it like it was yesterday.
Life goes on, but sure as hell sent a shiver up my spine
All the Motorcyclists from Reading (which included me) and Taplow were called out to grab a car each (rather than our bikes) and we desended on mass in Hungerford to help with the various tasks that had to be done.
Roger Brereton the traffic officer that was killed was a good buddy of mine and in fact I had only been talking to him half an hour before he went for his meal break with his crewmate Jim Wood (who appeared in the programme).
The devastation had to be seen to be believed, and I was one of those who helped recover Rogers body and his patrol car (23 points of entry, 12 points of exit) which was shot to pieces.
What made matters worse and something not commonly known, was that the patrol car was only about 2 weeks old, and the insurance company decided to rebuild it and put it back into service. Well you can imagine the uproar, and even back then Traffic division in Thames Valley was quite small and we all knew one another, so word soon got around and we threatened to put the car into the nearest Motorway overbridge and write it off properly if we ever got it back, so it was decided to return it to civillian spec and sell it on.
Took me about 5 years before I could actually stop in Hungerford, but seeing the programme tonight and many of my former colleagues (Eddy Shanks, my Sgt who died a year or so ago), Mick Moorby who has now retired, Pete Dudley my crewmate who is now retired (but was the star of Driving School with the Thames Valley students) brought it all back to me, and I remember it like it was yesterday.
Life goes on, but sure as hell sent a shiver up my spine