Mother furious after hit-and-run

A YOUNG mother has spoken of her anger after she was involved in a hit-and-run accident as she drove home with her two-year-old son.

Kate Mclanchan’s car was struck on the A143 in Billingford, Norfolk, as she returned from visiting her sick grandmother. She said her Saab estate was shunted from behind as the cars collided at about 12.30pm last Wednesday.

But when she pulled over to swap details, the other driver had disappeared.

Mrs Mclanchan, a nurse from the Fornham St Martin area of Bury St Edmunds, said the crash had left her tearful and in disbelief that someone could drive away without checking whether the occupants were injured or not.

She said: “It was misty and raining, and I was driving home slowly because Owen was falling asleep in the back seat.

“A driver tried to overtake me but had to pull in sharply because a lorry was coming the other way. He caught me on the back side of my car and it felt like a major impact.

“I stopped and turned round to see if Owen was ok and then pulled over and waited but no-one came back. I just rang my husband up and burst into tears.

“I couldn’t believe someone could drive off. It’s not the money or that I’ll have to pay for the damage from my own insurance that has bothered me, but the fact that the other driver didn’t stop to check how we were.”

Mrs Mclanchan, 32, who has worked at West Suffolk Hospital, in Bury, for more than a decade, said she reported the incident to the police but was unable to give any description of the vehicle that crashed into her because the incident had happened so quickly.

She has been told it is unlikely they will be able to trace the driver.

But she said she felt compelled to contact the East Anglian Daily Times just to get across how upsetting the whole affair had been.

“After more than 10 years in nursing and having a strong belief in the kindness of humans, I am so upset and shocked that someone would act like this,” she said.

“Hopefully, they will read this and be shamed into owning up, or at the very least stopping and dealing with a situation if they ever have another accident.”