Vigil for victims of hit-and-run

Jul 5 2008 by Neil Mckay, The Journal

THE family of a grandmother and her teenage granddaughter who were mown down by a hit-and-run driver were yesterday keeping a hospital bedside vigil.

Ada Foster, 59, and her granddaughter Patricia, 19, had enjoyed a convivial evening with friends and relatives in the Three Tuns pub, a village local in Easington Lane, near Houghton-le-Spring, on Wednesday.

The pair left the pub at around 11.20pm to walk home.

Minutes later they were mown down.

Yesterday locals in Easington Lane, a former mining community, were still trying to come to terms with what had happened.

One woman said her daughter, 15, saw the incident. “She said it was absolutely horrible to watch. It was pure carnage, like watching somebody being murdered. She is still traumatised,” said the youngster’s mother.

The driver is alleged to have mounted the kerb, knocked the two women over and then reversed over them twice.

Mrs Foster suffered head injuries and a broken leg.

Patricia suffered head injuries, a broken leg and fractured pelvis. She is in the intensive care unit at Sunderland Royal Hospital but her injuries are said not to be life threatening.

A customer in the Three Tuns said yesterday that Patricia’s husband, Roland, raced to the scene when he heard the news.

“Roly is terribly upset. He’s gone through to the hospital today.

“Ada and her granddaughter had been sitting here enjoying a quiet drink then they walked out and were run over. It is hard to take in.”

A number of local people were reported to have seen the incident and were giving statements to police.

A 42-year-old man, who locals say was known to the two victims, was detained by Durham Police after a pursuit of a silver Rover car which began on the A19 at Wellfield, south of Peterlee, County Durham, ended when the car crashed at the Norton turn-off, Stockton, at 6am on Thursday.