A tearful police officer has told how he feared he would ‘never see his two little girls ever again’ after a drink-driver smashed into him and left him fighting for his life.
PC Stephen Wales was investigating a disturbance at a pub in Wakefield, South Yorkshire, when boozed up Karolina Serafin, 25, mounted a curb and pinned him against his van.
Serafin, who was more than double the drink-drive limit, also struck two pedestrians in the same incident, who sustained ‘horrific injuries’.
In his chilling account, the father of two said he knew straight away that his injuries were serious when he saw ‘blood pouring’ from his right leg.
He said: ‘I could feel blood pouring from my right leg, and as I looked towards my right leg, it was bent the wrong way.
‘At that point, I thought that I would never see my two little girls ever again.
‘I’m a father, and that’s when I thought it were really serious.’
The devasting crash dates back to July 10 this year, when the officer’s eye was drawn to an incident in the early hours of the morning outside a pub in Wakefield.
PC Wales said: ‘On Sunday 11 July, 2021, I was on routine patrol in Wakefield City Centre, covering the night-time economy.
‘At 1:24am, I stumbled across an incident outside the Black Bull Pub, a public order incident.
‘As I parked my patrol vehicle, which was a police van, I exited that vehicle and no sooner had I grabbed hold of the person, I was struck by an almighty bang.
‘I was thrown 20 to 30 feet into the middle of the road from the pavement.
PC Wales soon realised that he had been hit by a speeding vehicle and that two nearby pedestrians were also injured.
‘After the initial impact, I came round and realised I’d been struck by a car at quite a significant speed.
‘Laid before me were two members of the public who had sustained horrific injuries also that evening.
In the minutes that followed, the police officer said he recognised that his wounds could be potentially life-threatening.
He said: ‘I initially knew at the scene that my injuries were very severe.
‘I could feel blood pouring from my right leg, and as I looked towards my right leg, it was bent the wrong way.
‘At that point I thought that I would never see my two little girls ever again.
‘I’m a father, and that’s when I thought it were really serious.’
Since the crash, PC Wales has required 24 hours of surgery, where he’s had a metal plate and 12 screws in his left leg and 11 pins inserted in his right leg.
His right leg was the most severely affected as it suffered muscle and tissue damage that will leave it disfigured for the rest of his life.
He will also have to undergo a further 8-12 months of physiotherapy and rehabilitation.
But incredibly, he is defying doctors’ expectations and is expected to make a full recovery.
Sadly, the two pedestrians who were also struck down alongside PC Wales each required one of their legs to be amputated.
Serafin, of Worksop, Nottinghamshire, admitted three counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and was jailed for three years and eight months on November 8.
During her sentencing, prosecutor Andrew Dallas said that Serafin had gone to a flat in Alverthorpe Road hours before the smash, where she had been drinking neat vodka.
After heading to a party at a neighbour’s house, she drank more but got into an argument with the householder.
She was described a slurring, unsteady on her feet and ‘all over the place’ when she then grabbed her car keys and got behind the wheel.
Investigators later found that she had set her satnav system in her phone to an address in the Pontefract area moments before she set off.
CCTV played to the court showed her heading along Alverthorpe Road and onto Westgate when she took the bend wide and veered into the kerb.
She was travelling at an average of nearly 37.8 mph on the 30 mph stretch, the court heard.
Serafin suffered head injuries herself and failed to provide a roadside breath test.
Despite working with doctors to manage his rehabilitation over the past five months, PC Wales says being hit by a drink driver has never ‘sunk in’.
He said: ‘I initially found out that it had been a drink-driver immediately after the incident while I was recovering in hospital, but it’s never really sunk in.
‘It only really started to hit home more as I saw my kids and realising how close I’d come to losing my life that night.’
