By Nicola Forman

A young mum who suffered horrific injuries in a car crash has spoken at her heartbreak at finding out a police officer was killed helping at the scene.

Natasha O’Neill had to undergo surgery to her spine after the accident, had cuts and bruises on her face and three broken ribs.

PC Phillip Pratt, who was based at Sheerness police station, was at the scene dealing with the incident.

He was hit by a car and later died of his injuries.

Miss O’Neill said she was not told of his death until two weeks later and even then did not fully understand as she had been given strong painkillers.

She said: “I was so dosed up on morphine I didn’t really understand what they were telling me, but I couldn’t believe it when they said someone had died.

“I felt so bad, as he was putting the cones out because of the accident that we’d been in.

“I don’t blame myself, I can’t start doing that otherwise I’ll never be able to move on but I’m sad for his family. He was just doing his job.”

Miss O’Neill was travelling in the back of a blue Ford Fiesta when the accident happened on the Maidstone-bound carriageway of the A249 – opposite the Bobbing Apple, on Sunday, June 14.

The car, filled with a group from the Sheppey Event Marshalling Unit on their way to a cycling event in Ashford lost control after two pigeons crashed

Read the full story in next week's Times Guardian.