A SURGEON who was first on the scene of a horrific motorway pile-up in which two people died has issued a plea for drivers to take care on the roads this festive period.

Dr Javaad Mirza recounted desperately performing CPR on the ‘cold hard tarmac’ of the M40 after he was confronted by the immediate aftermath of the tragedy while driving to work just two days before Christmas.

Oxford historian Mark Whittow and mechanic Shane Stokes died in the crash at around 11.35pm on December 23, 2017 after Dr Whittow’s Volkswagen Polo had collided with a stationary BMW in the inside lane of the motorway.

Dr Mirza, who was commended for his actions on that night, said those moments spent trying to save the lives of the victims will remain with him for the rest of his life.

And now almost a year on after his desperate efforts to save them, he is hoping the lessons learned from the traumatic experience can be passed on ahead of thousands of Oxfordshire motorists making the Christmas getaway.

Warning others never to drive tired and to take their time on the busy festive roads, he said: “It changed not only my outlook as a doctor and in clinical procedures but in my everyday life too.

“It’s something that resonates and will resonate with me for the rest of my life.

“Life is very precious to risk it to get somewhere 10 minutes earlier, or even just to make it for Christmas, and I understand Christmas is very important, it just doesn’t justify putting your life at risk.”

The 27-year-old surgeon was driving to Birmingham to work an overnight hospital shift when he came across the scene minutes later.

Speaking yesterday he admitted he had almost become ‘overwhelmed’ by the scale of carnage he encountered that night, just north of Banbury, and wants to avoid others having to encounter anything like it.

In an almost automatic act on the fateful night, he immediately began offering emergency roadside treatment to the victims he believed he could save.

Dr Mirza said he checked on one patient before realising he would not be able to free him from the wreckage, and so turned his attention to the second seriously injured man.

He said: “I was the first or second car, right at the front, I didn’t see the whole thing happen.

“I just pulled up, got out of my car and set to work.

“I’m used to seeing traumas on a daily basis, but this was completely different.

“I pulled the gentleman out of the car with the help of the public and immediately began CPR.

“The moment it really became difficult was when I was performing CPR and I looked up and didn’t have any of the normal medical team or equipment that you would have in the hospital, I was on the cold, hard tarmac and I looked up and instead you see the family and members of the public.

“At that moment it becomes very palpable, but it was more of a humbling feeling - I realised this could have happened to me if I had been just a few seconds earlier, I could’ve been involved in this.”

An inquest into the deaths heard how Dr Whittow’s car had struck the BMW from behind and was left facing sideways on the carriageway.

He was then struck head on my Mr Stokes’ Volkswagen Passat causing the Polo to flip onto its roof.

Mr Stokes, 29, from Warwick, was then hit from behind by a van, causing him to career into a safety barrier.

In total five cars were involved in the crash, leaving debris scattered across a 250m stretch of the carriageway.

Several members of the public also offered assistance under the guidance of Dr Mirza, who was praised by emergency services for his courage in the face of a ‘desperate’ and ‘hopeless’ situation.

And Dr Mirza, who works as an oral maxillofacial head and neck trauma surgeon at Guy’s Hospital in London and has previously worked shifts at the John Radcliffe Hospital, was keen to thank the others that offered assistance: “It was not just me, there were members of the public as well who helped.

“I did go into this sort of automatic response as a doctor where you just do everything you can you can to the best of your ability.”