Hit and run buggy knocked me down

Ethel Preston was standing at the northern end of the London Road precinct when the driver of the four-wheeled carriage twice knocked into her.

She was left with a badly bruised left leg and unable to walk. Her doctor from Maywood Health Centre saw her on Monday and was concerned enough about her to promise to monitor her recovery.

Mrs Preston said: "I've got very deep bruising and I can't stand on my leg and I can't walk because of the injury. I've also got whiplash and pains in my shoulders.

"These buggies are very dangerous. Where I was standing was supposed to be a safe precinct for walking in, and I'm knocked down while I am on the pavement. It's disgraceful."

The accident happened at about 11.30am last Saturday while Mrs Preston was standing with her walking stick outside Dexters Pharmacy.

She was waiting for the crowds of shoppers to pass by before she walked across the pavement to her car which was parked at the kerb at the top of the precinct.

But she suddenly became aware of being clobbered at the back of her left leg. Before she could react, she received another heavy blow to the same spot.

"The first time shocked me," she explained. "The second time I was on the floor."

She described the buggy as being a 'big, heavy machine' which was dark coloured.

The driver, an elderly man with glasses, was surrounded by a plastic hood, which was also dark coloured.

Other pedestrians quickly crowded around Mrs Preston, of Nyewood Lane, to find the seriousness of her injuries.

They took her to a nearby seat to enable her to recover. She declined their offers of calling an ambulance because she wanted to drive her car back home.

She attempted to speak to the buggy driver but he did not respond. He was unable to get past her initially because of the sheer number of people who went to her assistance.

Mrs Preston stated: "I tried to get someone to make him stay. But, by the time I had got up and been put on the seat, he went off.

"He knew he should not have been on the pavement and he knew that, if he stayed, he may not have been allowed to continue driving that buggy."

Mrs Preston added that the witnesses to the incident included an off-duty female police officer who told her she was the innocent victim of the collision.

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