“I would swap places with him if I could.”

The words of Maggie Stiles, mother of teenager Greg Stiles of Thame, just one of hundreds of people killed on roads across the Thames Valley each year.

She was speaking at a road death memorial service at St Mary the Virgin Church in Thame on Sunday, attended by families who have lost loved ones.

In May 2009, 18-year-old Greg was killed on the A4129 Risborough Road, near Thame, after another driver overtook three cars at high speed, forcing him to swerve into another vehicle.

He was pronounced dead at the scene and his girlfriend Abigail Dowdy was seriously injured.

Yesterday, his mother said: “Life will never be the same again. But one thing will never change, and that is that I am Greg’s mum.

“I would give anything to do his washing again, to make his dinner, to clean up the dirty cups he left.

“I would swap places with him if I could.

“But that can’t be, which is why I have to find ways to take him with me every day.”

Sammy Edwards, from Lake House, Marsh, near Aylesbury, was found guilty at Reading Crown Court in September of causing the death by dangerous driving of Mr Stiles.

He was jailed for five years.

In 2009, 30 people died on Oxfordshire’s roads.

To date this year, 34 people have already been killed.

The service, attended by more than 150 people, was led by the Rev David Wilbraham, force chaplain of Thames Valley Police. The Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev John Pritchard, also took part.

It is believed to be the only police-organised service in the country to remember those who have died in road traffic accidents.

Passages were read by Oxfordshire’s chief fire officer David Etheridge, Rob King, divisional operations manager for the South Central Ambulance Service, and Imam Monwar Hussain, on behalf of the Thames Valley Muslim Police Association.

Chief Insp Jill Wootton, deputy head of Thames Valley’s roads policing department, said the rise in the number of fatalities in the county was a matter for concern.

She said: “What we want people to do is not put themselves into situations – to take more care and more responsibility.”