A FORMER police inspector will appear before a French Court next month charged with involuntary manslaughter, following a car crash in France which killed four people from Somerset, it emerged today.

An inquest heard retired Minehead Police Inspector Keith Bridges was more than three times the French drink-drive limit when his Jeep Cherokee crashed near his family’s new home in the Dordogne region of France in June 2006.

The crash killed his wife Julie-Anne, 43, her daughter Bethany, ten and also Andrew Dyer 41, from Bridgwater, and his daughter Gabriella whose family had been holidaying with the Bridges. A jury at the inquest, held at Taunton’s Shire Hall, returned a narrative verdict.

The verdict, recorded by West Somerset Coroner Michael Rose, stated that the accident would not have happened if Mr Bridges had not attempted to negotiate a bend at excessive speed, had his judgement not been moderately impaired by alcohol, or all of the passengers were correctly seated with seat belts.

The hearing heard that Mr Bridges claimed the excessive speed of the car was caused by a fault in the jeep’s overdrive system.

The jury found that this was unlikely to have caused the crash.

After the verdict, the inquest was told Mr Bridges would face four charges relating to the crash at Bergerac Courts of Justice in Place du Palais, France, on November 24.

Among the charges the former inspector will face is involuntary manslaughter while driving a vehicle under the influence of alcohol.