UPDATE: Mother pushed daughter to safety before being hit by lorry in Chichester
A BRAVE mother had managed to push at least one of her two daughters to safety before she was hit by a skip lorry in Chichester, police have said.
The 37-year-old local woman was crossing Whyke Road at 9am today (Thursday, February 9) to take one of her children to the nearby Rumboldswhyke School when the accident happened.
Her daughters, aged three and five, had been on their scooters. The mother was released from underneath the lorry with help from West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, and was flown to Southampton General Hospital by air ambulance.
She is said to be in a stable condition with serious but not life-threatening leg injuries. One of the girls received slight grazing but neither needed hospital treatment. The lorry driver was also unharmed.
Although it appears the lorry was driving at a slow speed the woman was dragged long for a short distance before it came to rest. She had managed to push at least one of her daughters to safety as the accident occurred. No one else was injured.
Police have closed Whyke Road while they carry out their investigations. It is anticipated it will be open again this afternoon.
Inspector Phil Nicholas of the Sussex Road Policing Unit said: “We are in the early stages of establishing exactly what happened and would like any witnesses to contact us via 101 quoting Operation Bass.”
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Chichester
Monday 28 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: West
Comments
There are 7 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
corfe
Sunday, February 19, 2012 at 09:53 AMI was saddened at reading about the accident at Rumboldswhyke school, my mum was the lollipop lady there for 25 years from the late 1960's to the 1980's, she took over from an elderly man who always crossed me over the road safely. The childrens safety was her top priority, she knew the name of every child and their younger siblings and would not dare to step off the pavement until their name was called, she was made redundant but did not go without a fight from the parents. She had two main gripes, the first was why was a lollipop needed in the sixties when there was hardly any traffic but then not needed now,The biggest though was that when motorists saw the level crossing lights flashing they would speed up as they approached her, she came home many times very shaken after nearly being hit. Twenty five years experience was not listened to, I hope it will be now. I wish all those caught up in this tragic accident well.
suebear
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 06:57 PMWhile it is an awful accident, can we not blame the lack of lollipop ladies? Maybe parents should relearn the basics of crossing a road safely and not cross between cars, stop look listen etc. My thoughts are with the driver -who I comforted, as his own words were " i dont know where she came from. I didnt even see her".
Tonanti216
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 05:37 PMThis was indeed a terrible accident and one that could have been avoided had there been some form of "crossing control". However, the loss of a lollypop lady cannot be the only factor and there should be no reason not to have volunteers to do this small task three times a day. The HUGE obstacle to this is the insane " 'elf n safety" and even more ridiculous "risk assessment" of simple tasks foisted on workers and volunteers in all sorts of jobs. If blind adherence to the regulations was minimised or indeed done away with many more people would be able to fill these well needed roles in our day to day lives. Insurance companies, Local Authorities and the public sector in general love these petty regulations because it gives them extra work to moan about and demand more money for. Let people help out at school in this way (Oh I forgot ... CRB Checks, yet another money spinner that has not succeeded in spotting all the nasty people in the world either. I do hope this brave mother recovers soon and as importantly her little girls who must be terrified.
Dudder
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 03:22 PMI hope this poor woman recovers quickly and her daughters are ok. I agree that this road is dangerous and as such should have either a crossing put in or at least a lollipop lady. the only issue I have is that people state that the loss of the lollipop lady is a contributing factor to todays incident and this was an 'accident waiting to happen' My concern is why on earth do people wait for these accidents to happen and not be proactive and do something to avoid it. The facts are that the existing safety was taken away so what has been done to ensure safety? Despite all these adults that use the road taking their children to a school full of teachers and assistants and a head with no one has come with an idea to ensure the safety of their children. Cant a group of parentsinterested people be formed to take on safety crossing help. Maybe parents could be asked to contribute towards the costs of a new lollipop person. ( i know things are tight but this is their childs safety) Or the school fund a lollipop person, after sitting on the board of governors and seeing the way a school runs its not out of reach. i know people will say that they should not have to pay extra but if the funding isn't there - there is no safety. To wait for the accident to happen and then point fingers is futile and if this accident happened the chances are it will happen again - so what price a childs life
ashuk
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 12:22 PMThe road has always been dangerous but this has recently been exacerbated by cars parking on both sides of the road. This has the effect of narrowing the already narrow road and makes it more dangerous for crossing predestines and harder for drivers to spot people. Losing the lollipop lady was a move a at the height of stupidity, could they not ask people to volunteer for such a position and as a reward give the volunteers a council tax reduction? Due to the location of the nearby railway line it may be difficult to position a pedestrian crossing close to the school due to the flow of traffic, but a solution must be found. I hope the Lady recovers quickly.
stephb
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 09:38 PMyes it's far too little too late! This morning I witnessed the most horrible thing i've ever seen, my daughters are still awake, upset and confused!!! It is such a dangerous area considering the amount of children coming from all directions, it is a miracle this has not happened sooner!!!!! fingers of blame may point in all directions, but ultimately they should end with the council... this is a school, these are our children and there is no crossing and no lollipop lady, there is nothing to keep our children safe! I'm sure you're very busy cutting budgets and pricing everything, let us know the price of a life when you have your figures through! Enough is enough now. Prayers with you all. You are so brave XXX
AND1
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 07:12 PMThis is a day that most parents of rumboldswhyke school had hoped would never happen but for almost two years now we have not had a safe crossing since loosing our lollipop lady, each day we have to negotiate a very busy road and it was only time before a tragic accident like this was to happen, furthermore I must add that the traffic officer who was on duty outside the school when the children where leaving and who did nothing to help them cross the road should ask himself was there a point in you being there or was it a case of too little too late.
Page 1 of 1
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.