Two Northampton men awarded top bravery honours for horror crash rescue

Two local heroes who risked their lives to rescue the driver of a blazing car after a fatal night time horror crash at Denton have been awarded top national bravery honours – one of them by royal approval.

Matthew Perry was at his home in Denton when he heard a loud crash and rushed outside where he was confronted by three young people who had died at the scene in their car.

But the driver in the other car, which had smoke and flames coming from underneath it, was alive and shouting for help.

Matthew went to the man’s car, and despite the risk of the vehicle exploding, fought to free the driver.

In a bid to get into the vehicle he tried to smash the window with a brick his wife had brought to the scene.

That didn’t work and he tried to open the passenger door but that was locked - so he then found that the driver’s door was buckled and bent open a fraction and, using all his strength, he managed to force it open.

His neighbour, Ben Cook, then arrived at the scene and tried to get the other vehicle open.

In the mean time Matthew managed to get the driver out of the other car and to safety. Matthew then realised he had dropped his phone and went to retrieve it so he could keep the emergency services call handler up to date on what was happening.

Now, Matthew has been awarded a Royal Humane Society Testimonial on vellum, which has been personally approved by and will be signed by Princess Alexandra, President of the Society.

Ben is to receive one of the Society’s Testimonials on Parchment for his part in the incident.

In addition to the awards they are to receive - the two men have also won the personal praise of Andrew Chapman, Secretary of the Society.

Speaking at the Society’s London headquarters as he announced the awards he said: “What they both did was heroic. Approaching an accident where vehicles are on fire is terribly dangerous. There is a high risk that the vehicle or vehicles could explode or turn into fireballs at any time, not only injuring or killing any-one in them, but also injuring or killing anyone nearby.

“However, Matthew and Ben didn’t hesitate to go to the rescue of the driver that was still alive and to try and get the other vehicle open as well. They were both incredibly brave and without doubt deserve the awards they are to receive.”

No date has yet been fixed for presentation of the awards but it is expected to take place in the near future.

The roots of the Royal Humane Society stretch back more than two centuries. The Queen is its patron and its president is Princess Alexandra. It is the premier national body for honouring bravery in the saving of human life.

It was founded in 1774 by two of the day's eminent medical men, William Hawes and Thomas Cogan. Their primary motive was to promote techniques of resuscitation.

However, as it emerged that numerous people were prepared to put their own lives at risk to save others, the awards scheme evolved, and today a variety of awards are made depending on the bravery involved.

The Society also awards non health care professionals who perform a successful resuscitation. Since it was set up the Society has considered over 87,000 cases and made over 200,000 awards. The Society is a registered charity which receives no public funding and is dependent on voluntary donations.

It was one of a select number of organisations to receive a donation from the Patron’s fund which was set up to acknowledge work done by organisations of which the Queen is the patron, to mark her 90th birthday.