'˜Hit and run' pensioner calls for action on '˜dangerous road'

Viviane Pfitzner was struck by a car as she walked her dogs just metres from her home in Clay Lane.

She badly broke her left arm and says she and her two dogs are ‘lucky to be alive’ after diving out of the way in July, 2016.

Viviane said: “I knew he was going to hit me, I tried to jump out of the way but I was next to a 4ft bank and a lady of 65 cannot jump very far any more. I pushed my dogs away but it caught my arm.

“The driver didn’t even slow down, let alone stop.

“It was then that I looked down and saw a bone protruding out of my arm.”

Viviane was rushed to St Richard’s Hospital and underwent surgery to put a metal plate in her arm.

Eight months on and she is still struggling with injuries.

Despite intensive treatment and painful exercises three times a day, she can barely clench her left hand, making her love of gardening and stitching nearly impossible.

At the time police made an unsuccessful appeal to catch the driver of the silver car. Viviane says his radio was blaring and he may not have seen her because of the overgrown vegetation.

But she said: “It may have been an accident but he would have heard something so the fact that he didn’t stop turned it into a crime.”

Viviane lives between Bosham and West Ashling and the long 60mph stretch of Clay Lane is narrow. She said: “This is a country lane used by cyclists, walkers, joggers and school children but cars use it as a race track.

“It’s so dangerous, someone will be killed one day.”

Viviane, from Germany, says her attempts to get speed restrictions enforced or speed bumps have faced a ‘constant brick wall’.

She said: “I’ve been told because I don’t live in a built-up area they can’t do anything but the rules are outdated and need to be changed to stop anyone else being injured.”

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