Seven police officers handed bravery awards after saving lives in horror incidents

West Midlands motorway police, PCs Paul Brant, Mitch Darby and Dan Varley who were first to arrive at a scene of devastation after a crash on the M6 near Birmingham last year have been awarded bravery certificates for saving the life of a badly injured motorist.

Shortly after they arrived the man stopped breathing and the three officers carried out CPR in torrential rain.

Visibility was poor, traffic was still speeding along the motorway and three heavily damaged vehicles were strewn across all four lanes.

The seriously injured man from Birmingham was bleeding heavily and struggling to breathe.

In another incident last year, PCs Richard Reynolds and Simon Steptoe who are based at Bloxwich went to the aid of a 69-year-old man who had collapsed at the wheel of his car late at night in Queslett Road, Great Barr and stopped breathing.

They began administering CPR, and kept it up for 40 minutes until he started breathing again. Both have also been given bravery awards.

In the third incident, also last year, West Bromwich based PCs Ollie Bayton and Andy Kitson were first on the scene after a suicidal West Bromwich man warned police he intended to take his life.

When they arrived they found him hanging in the hallway of his home, not breathing and with no pulse. They managed to cut him down and started CPR to save his life.

Andrew Chapman, of the Royal humane Society said: “Three lives were saved here, all in harrowing circumstances, as a result of the rapid response.”