A man whose wife was seriously injured in a car crash is taking on a charity fundraiser to remind drivers to be safe behind the wheel.
Peter Venables, of Snowdrop Drive in Attleborough, will be biking 100 miles from Carrow Road up to Cromer and around the coast to Great Yarmouth on Saturday, June 20.
He will be raising funds for the East Anglian Air Ambulance, which rushed his wife Christine to hospital after the head-on smash on the B1077 at Great Ellingham in October 2013.
The crash, which left Mrs Venables in a wheelchair, saw the other driver send a text message just one minute before the impact.
Referee Mr Venables, 48, will be joined by 20 friends and colleagues to take on the challenge.
He said: 'It is important for me to give something back to the air ambulance - they need the help and they saved my wife's life. They are not government-funded and it is just a way of saying thank you.'
He said that his wife was on the way to recovery and that the bike ride was a way of reminding drivers the importance of focusing on the road ahead.
'It is easy to be distracted but the consequences can be so awful,' he said.
PC Charlie Savage, of the serious collision investigation team, headed up the Venables case.
She said: 'People using mobile phones while driving continues to be a problem. For example we have recently had the case of Alison Dray, an army captain who was using her mobile to surf the internet moments before a crash which killed a man.
'Mobile phones demand to be answered – when a notification pops up, whatever it may be, it is almost as if it demands to be answered. We would advise people to put their phones away until they reach their destination, because the devastation that it can cause is horrendous.'
If you would like to get involved or help out, contact Mr Venables on 07788125369.
To donate, visit www.justgiving.com/peter-venables/
Do you have an Attleborough story for us? Contact reporter Lauren Cope on lauren.cope@archant.co.uk
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