Girl hit by car

“I travel along the A419 at that time in the morning quite often on my way home from work. There are lots of 11+ age school children about then walking to to the four local Senior schools. There is a lot of traffic at that time of day, not only because it is rush hour, but also because it is only yards from the three entrances to Wycliffe College (a private school if you are not familiar with it). At that time of day I never get above 20 miles an hour between Bridgend and Ebley, with nose to tail slow moving traffic in every direction. Most of the children seem to think they are invincible dodging in between the slow moving traffic which is an additional hazard to watch for. Whilst I have no idea what happened in this instance, I could quite understand how a car could perhaps catch someone whilst they were dashing between the traffic and may not have realised it. Not so long ago I was driving along the Westward Road when Marling and the High Schools were just coming out. The traffic along there is stop start at that time of day. The children walk along the path completely filling it, so any one passing walks into the road. You have to drive quite close to the kerb because there are school buses on the other side of the road, to let the oncoming traffic pass the buses. I hit something and stopped. Just as I was going past, a girl had stepped on to the road and my wing mirror had hit her bag, it shook me up and hopefully taught her a valuable lesson - I was going much less than 5 miles an hour. Another time I was parked outside of the Schools when a boy walked straight into my wing mirror so hard it snapped it right back, to busy talking to his mates.

I hope the girl recovers well and would hate it if it was my Daughter, but don't rush to judge until you know the full facts.”

“Matt, there is obviously a reason why he did not stop, and in all probability for one of the reasons you have stated. But isn't it a sign of the times and of what the human race has become, when someone puts saving their own miserable skin after hitting a child, above stopping to help her and make sure she is alright. That really stinks.”

“bonzaharris1 - agreed. However, the driver might have had reasons why he chose not to stop, like no insurance / tax / MOT / driving licence, etc. Drink / drugs, not his car, and perhaps other reasons. Yes I'm jumping to assumptions, but might also have hit the nail on the head.

At the very least he's failed to stop at the scene of an accident, and failed to report it, so there's 2 offences committed, at the very least.

There have been too many hit & run incidents recently - time those responsible who are identified were hit with bigger fines / bans etc, to get the message across to others that such actions are not acceptable.”

“Broad daylight, and the road is very open there so vision will be good. Whoever his this poor girl has no excuses for not stopping. Lowlife scumbag, lucky she was not badly hurt, not that they would have known. Hope whoever is responsible is tracked down and dealt with.”