A grieving father who lost his only son due to a drunk driver has launched an impassioned plea to motorists.

Pete Funnell’s teenage son Will died on the way home from a night out in Maidstone when the car he was a passenger in spun out of control at 84mph and ploughed into an on-coming 4X4.

It comes as figures released by Kent County Council reveal Maidstone together with Dartford revealed the highest number of drink driving related accidents in the county.

Maidstone also has the highest number of deaths - a figure it shares with Canterbury and Thanet.

The town has recorded 101 accidents, which includes four deaths, in the period from April, 2013 to April, 2016.

Now Mr Funnell has bravely agreed to speak out in support of Kent County Council’s annual anti Drink Drive Campaign.

The 51-year-old’s eyes welled up as he recalled how much his 19-year-old son used to love Christmas Day. But since his death, Mr Funnell and his wife Kate dread this time of year.

Mr Funnell, of Biddenden, said: “He loved this time of year and some of our earliest memories of him were when he was opening his presents by the fire as a toddler and when he was older he used to burst with excitement waiting for us to open the gifts he’d bought us.

“Since his death we just can’t bring ourselves to celebrate any more. Without Will there just doesn’t seem to be any point.”

The crash happened in August 2013 as Will, who lived in Tenterden Road, Golford, near Cranbrook, was being driven home from a night out in Maidstone. His parents struggle to cope that their son decided to get a lift rather than take a taxi that tragic night.

Mr Funnell, a landscaper, recalled his desperation when he tried to get hold of his son the morning after the crash.

He explained: “I was ringing his phone to see where he was. Then I started ringing his mates to see if they knew where he was. Then I heard there had been a fatal crash on Linton Hill.

“In my heart of hearts at that moment I knew he was in it. Will was killed at four in the morning. I got up at half six, seven o’clock, got to the builder’s merchants at half eight. I went up to Will’s house with the building materials and then one of his mates rang.

He said ‘is Will with you?’, I said ‘no’. I said ‘don’t tell me he was in that crash. He said ‘no

I don’t know where he is’.

“So he had a ring round of their friends and then called me back and asked what colour shirt was Will wearing. He was wearing his pink one.

“I was hoping I was being overly dramatic, and that he would be in hospital hurt, but I really felt inside that he’d been killed.

“I rang the police and I said I think my son has been involved in this crash. They asked me if he had any distinguishing marks so I told them about the tattoo on his arms and on his hands. The policeman called me back and said ‘where are you?’

“I knew then that he was dead. The police officer came to Will’s house and he told me William died at 4.30am this morning in a road traffic crash.

“We got to the morgue and had to look through a window into a room where Will was laying. His eyes were still open and his hair was all over the place, it was just horrendous.

“He never wasted one minute of his life, he was always doing something, you couldn’t stop him. When he died, I didn’t want anyone to touch his room. I would go in and I would smell his clothes.

“This is the heartbreak of it. It’s terrible when someone loses their life, but we’re left behind picking up all the pieces. When someone as young as that dies, people still ring up asking to speak to him about credit cards or saying we believe he was involved with a crash.

“It’s not just youngsters, at Christmas we are all going to have a drink, or a party, parents, grandparents. So do you want to go and drink, drive your car this Christmas and risk killing yourself, killing someone else and ruin other people’s lives, other people’s families? Drink driving does destroy lives.

“Just don’t take that chance because a car is not a toy, and it will hurt you very quick and very easily. We all think we’re invincible, we all think we can handle a couple of drinks and then drive, but you can’t.

“You’re not a machine, drink does effect you. If you are going to drink then don’t drive, and if you are going to drive, don’t drink, it’s as simple as that. Leave the car where it is, walk home, get a taxi. If you’re worried about someone else’s driving then don’t get in the car.

“How do you think our Christmases are now? We don’t have any cards up, we don’t have presents, no lights up, no decorations, nothing.

“Will loved Christmas, we all did and when Will reached a certain age he began to love buying presents, that was what he enjoyed about it. He couldn’t wait to see our faces when we opened the presents he gave us.

“Now we hate Christmas, we don’t even want to think about it. Drink driving has killed our Christmases.

Since Will’s death, Mr Funnell and his wife Kate have set up a trust in his memory to help other families trying to cope with the bereavement process. For more information visit

The Will Funnell Trust.