"It was always going to happen." | Charlie's driving killed Abbie. It was her 18th birthday.

The owner of this iPhone was in a serious car crash and is not responding to their phone.The emergency location is Latitude 54 .8593 Longitude minus 1 .784 This message will repeat in 5 seconds.The owner of this iPhone was in a serious...

There was an Apple Watch activation.Went and grabbed our kit, put it in the car and was like driving to the location that the watch had pinged.And then on the way there, there had been somebody then ring it in.It was pitch black, you couldn't really see anything at all.I didn't really know what to expect, to be honest.The driver's parents took us down to the vehicle and it was just a scene of absolute carnage.

The car was on its roof, one person sort of lying on the floor, windows smashed, the headlights were on in the car but other than that you couldn't really see anything.

Four of you.What's your name, pal?Ray, I'm going to stick a tourniquet on your arm, OK?

One passenger, he was fully conscious, but he had an arterial bleed on his left arm, completely degloved, almost kind of removed from his body.

Just keep squeezing the hand, all right?That's it, pal.

He was saying, have I lost my arm, have I lost my arm?

Ray, I'm not going to lie, this is going to hurt, all right?

How old are you, Ray?18.18.

Who else has been with you, Ray?

Could only see two girls in the back of the car, so where is this other girl?

It was terrifying.

As it happens, she somehow managed to walk away with a broken pelvis and made her way back to the roadside.She was in such a damaged way, we could clearly see there was nothing we could do for her.There was so many other injuries and so many other people that could be saved.We had to focus on them.

Tom, will you open the doors on the ambulance?Yeah, yeah.

I only had about a year in service and I think at the time you don't really realise what you're looking at.You don't think about it and at the end of the day you've got a job to do, you have to just get on with it and do it.Your adrenaline's gone, you just deal with what's in front of you and that's all you can do.

One male driver, one male passenger, three female passengers.

Can you tell us what your name is?Is she able to tell us where they were sat, and what each one was wearing, so we can confirm who the deceased is, yeah?

Evelina, can you hear us?Who was wearing the pearly white dress?Abi, what's Abi's last name?Devani.Devani.

The deceased, am I right in thinking it's someone called Abigail?

I can't confirm that name at the minute, that's just us piecing together what she's wearing.

Right, right.As the call was coming in, Abigail's dad rang in, apparently he's got some sort of SOS from his daughter's phone, like a crash SOS.

This notification had gone to Abby's dad and he'd rang in saying, well, why is she?being in a car crash at Whitey, even on these roads, it makes no sense.She was supposed to be going out in Newcastle.

He's aware of something's happened because he can't get in touch with her.There's nothing to say he's coming to the scene now.Right.But that message...He doesn't know that she's died.

No.

Can I grab you two here?Can we just linger here a little bit?Because if we go farther, that's going to turn up and say he's daughter in that state.I don't want it.So, one is at either end.Do you know how old Abi is?

No.Has he given any other details for her, where she lives, etc?No.It's her 18th birthday, the last who's dead.

Because I have really curly hair, she was the only person who could do my hair.So she was like plaiting it, and we spent about two hours straight together, and we hadn't done that in a long time.I was like, oh, can we get a few photos?We haven't had photos in a while, and I'd never done that before, it was really weird, but I just felt the urge to, I don't know, capture the moment, so I did.And then, yeah, that was the last I heard of her.

Yeah, it's going to be her then, isn't it?That's...

Yeah.

Right.Will you and Smithy go and do the message with Dad?If we're happy that it's going to be her, there's nothing to contradict that that's going to be her.Go with it.Give him the message.

The police knocked on the door and the first thing I thought of was, like, oh, is it my grandparents?But then I was like, well, why would it be, like, the police, you know what I mean?So they'd closed the front door and I could hear like my mum crying and like she didn't say anything she just kept on going abbey and then I just didn't really know what I expect but I guess like I was like well she wouldn't react like this if something little had happened so I think I just kept on telling myself it wasn't true as if they were lying and I was like accusing the police of lying and I was like you you've got it wrong.

As a parent of two little boys and a little girl probably is one of the most sickening things I can think of.having to tell somebody that they've lost a child.There's nothing really that can prepare you for it.

I knew she was getting into town from a lift, so I kind of put two and two together, and I knew it was going to be something like that, but I had no idea who was in the car, I had no idea who she was with, and I didn't find out until the day after.

We have Abigail Devaney.Evelina Wojcicka and Hannah Diver in concert celebrating Abby's 18th birthday.From there, they get collected by Charlie Whitaker, driving the Ford Fiesta, with a view to getting a lift through to Newcastle.En route to Newcastle, Charlie decides to go home to collect a jacket, so he takes a detour.

There's a lot of tight bends, potholes, and it is a kind of road that you can't fly down there.

Brooms Lane's a narrow, windy road.The night before we had stormed Betso, there was a line of water on the road, which, as a driver, you've got to take into account, as he comes around that left -hand bend, to his right is a pool of water in the opposing lane.He fails to manoeuvre, that left -hand bend strikes the pool of water, and the car then subsequently comes off the road.

So I hit that tree.But I'd imagine that's the far end of what's gone wrong before then.

It was winter time, the roads were wet, there was no other vehicle involved, I kind of presumed.Has it been drink driving?

Yeah, can you just put on the log, please, for 2239?The driver's blown zero on the breathalyser.

Yeah, but you would only need to put one set of wheels in, wouldn't you?As soon as you put your offside wheels in that, it's going to kick your back end out to the near side.and then he's going to try to correct to this, overcorrect to this, and then go offside.

You have to go into it with an open mind.Some of the time, there are genuine mistakes, and we've got to try and establish the facts and the truth about what happened.Charlie was generally an unknown to the police, ultimately.Cars was probably the passion of his, I would say.He worked with cars.He liked to attend car meets.

He didn't come across like an arrogant individual.He came across as probably quite remorseful, I would say, with regards to what happened.

How long have you been driving, Charlie?

Since April.

April?

Yeah, just this year.

Not too long, then, huh?

Ultimately, he blamed that standing pool of water.It was obviously then our job to establish whether that actually was the reason for it or not.

just sort of got down into a bit of a dip, some water, halfway across the road, and then it's just sort of flung it round sideways.

Anything inappropriate about your driving?

No.

Anything on the ward?No.Anything feeling wrong with your car?

No, no, no.

And at what point could you first see the water?

Too late to do anything else.

Any chance you've gone over that speed limit?

No.

You've got three girls in the car and one of your pals in, any type of showing off you've made?No, no.Anybody trying to impress anybody?Do you think your manner of driving was responsible for the collision?No.

Just a serious accident.I wouldn't say it was...I wouldn't say it was my fault.

OK.At the beginning of any investigation, you kind of have maybe as a general hypothesis as to how this has happened, but then as you progress through it and the more information that you get with regards to, for instance, the download of Charlie's mobile phone, it was clear that there was a dangerous pattern going on.of behaviour, I would say, around his standard of driving and how he drove.

Will that phone contain any data whatsoever that will show you to be a bad driver?No comment.Anything contained in the videos...No comment...that'll show you to be a bad driver?

No comment.

From the download and examination of his phone, we find, I believe, around 22 to 24 videos, the majority of which are Charlie driving whilst on his mobile phone.Or driving or being recorded driving in a dangerous manner.Overtaking vehicles at speed on similar roads.Charlie almost colliding with other vehicles coming towards him.And it was painting that picture with regards to how Charlie probably likes to drive his car and how he likes to be behind a wheel.

Nobody's got a hand on the steering wheel.Doing an overtake at fast speed whilst filming, whilst changing gear, holding their mobile phone with no hands on the steering wheel.Can you justify why you would do that?

Do you know what that speed indicates, where the pointer is?Obviously, we've examined your vehicle and we know that to be 70 miles per hour.Is that dangerous, Charlie?

The speed was maybe about 90.Is it dangerous to drive?I just wait until I finish the question.Is there any roads in the UK where you're allowed to drive at 90 miles an hour?

No comment.

Crude, dark, wet.Would you say similar conditions as to what the roads were on the 21st of October?No comment.Again, somebody in your car who you have responsibility for as the driver.

Charlie.On Charlie large as you overtake, what's more worrying is, is the car coming the other way, literally coming towards you.

We also have enquiries around the vehicle itself.We were aware that Charlie had a black box in his vehicle, so rather any telematics from the car that can tell us anything, Yeah, I had one earlier.

And you've still got that now?

Yeah, it was in the car.

Yeah, you're looking a bit stressed about that.

Yeah, it was just in the car.

And is it still in the car?

Yeah, it should be, yeah.

You haven't removed it?

No.

Definitely not?

No.

If you have, we'll talk about it.

I don't know.

Do you want to have a legal break, please?

What came out of the investigation was Charlie actually removed the black box, I believe, on the 18th of October, so three days prior to the collision.

Can you give me any explanation why you would want to take it out?No comment.Is it so you can then drive dangerously?No comment.Your mobile phone not only can contain photos and videos and messages, it can store a whole host of data.Will there be anything on your phone using location data on various apps that will be able to show the speeds you were traveling on the night of the collision?

As part of the investigation, we would look at not onlymobile phones of the suspect, but also the victims and witnesses within the vehicle as well.Those devices had to be sent off to an expert who established a range of speeds from the three devices that were used.

A few seconds before we know the collision has happened, the three phones are all calculated going between a speed of 76 .44 mile an hour to 78 .50 mile an hour.

Did travelling at both speeds contribute, or were they the reason for you losing control of that vehicle, and the subsequent death of Abbey, and the subsequent injury of Hannah, Evelina and Ray?He couldn't really look us in the eye, to be honest, when we were asking him the questions.He knew what he'd done.He knew what he'd done, he was in the car on that night, and he understood the consequences of his actions and how he drove, and he knew what speed he was driving at.This wasn't a one -off.This was something that was inevitably always going to happen with Charlie.

Why do you drive that way?

Have you ever thought of the risk?Have you ever thought that before the 21st of October that your manner of driving was gonna hurt somebody?

He's told them so many times.

It was always going to end badly at some point for him.Especially at that age, I don't think you think about the consequences of most things.

I want to be honest, if this hadn't have happened to my sister, I think I would have ended up in surgery.where I was getting in those cars, because it's such a massive thing, especially at my age, that everyone knows someone who drives like that.

So, it's 22 .48, so I'm going to arrest you on suspicion of death by dangerous driving.You don't have to say anything to the Miami Defence.If you don't mention when questioned, something that you may later rely on in court, anything you do say may be evidence for it, mate.

He's a fairly new driver, he's a young lad, and I think it's just that typical, I've got a car and I'm driving, I'm going to fly around like an idiot because I can and I've got this freedom and independence.It doesn't necessarily make I'm a bad person.It's just irresponsible.As a driver, it's your responsibility to make sure that everybody's safe in your car.

You never think it's going to happen, do you?

It's not just now and again.People die on the roads every single day.People just think, oh, that won't happen to me. I'll be fine.But it absolutely happens, and it happens all the time.

If you do this again and again, you've got to acknowledge that this could happen to you.You're not invincible.And the pain that I've been through and that my family have been through, I think that should be enough to motivate someone to stop.

Unfortunately, until people stop and think about what they're actually doing and how simple it is to not go out there and speed, to not be on your mobile phone, to not drink and drive or have drugs and drive.Until they realise how simple it is, then unfortunately we're going to have more deaths, we're going to have more grief.

Big smiles!She was very kind, but she'd always defend us, like, if I ever had any, like, trouble at school or anything, she'd be the first to come up in my defence.We used to steal each other's clothes all the time.And we were, like, just getting to that point where you actually ask, cos we realised we could just ask to borrow, like, a top, and it would be a lot easier than fighting over it, but, yeah.I think there's, like, a bond between sisters, it's, like, different friends.You bond with your parents, cos I was a younger sister, like, I never knew a life without her.

Like, you just won't find that connection with anybody else.A lot of people have told me, like, how strong I am and all of this, but really, like, you think about, like, what choice do you actually have?Like, you can't do anything about it.No -one can take it away.No -one can bring her back.

Colleagues of mine having to reiterate this to people over and over again, it probably will take a little bit away from you.We're all human.We're not robots.You've had police officers having to go to Abby's home address, knock on the door, see the banners and balloons and cards in the address celebrating Abby's life, and then telling her parents that she's no longer here, that they're not going to get another 18 years to spend with her.We aren't here to try and make you feel bad, Charlie.We're here to try and find the truth.

So if there's anything you'd like to tell us, now on the basis of we've shown you everything, now's your opportunity to do so.

Nothing.Don't worry about it.

He's 17 at the time the collision takes place.I was a 17 -year -old lad at one point.I never did anything like this, don't get us wrong, but I've made mistakes, 100%.And ultimately, Charlie's never gone out that night to intentionally kill somebody.And there will be people out there watching this who are able to identify with Charlie the identity that he had around cars.And maybe he's asked himself the question, is it worth going a little bit faster?

Is it worth showing off?Charlie's not unique in terms of what he did on that night.Behind that wheel you have a responsibility.And it's not a responsibility that you should be taking lightly.