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Slap on the wrist? Or lock him up for good?

Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2009 9:29 pm
by Oscar Namechange
Two teens 'critical' and 12 injured after car ploughs into them on walk home from 15th birthday party | Mail Online

Fourteen teenagers were injured, two of them critically, when a car ploughed into them as they walked home from a 15th birthday party.

A 14-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy were battling life-threatening injuries last night, while 12 others were said to be stable.

Some of the youngsters were thrown 15ft through the air after they were hit by the red Citroen C1 that had careered off the road in Thorpe Bay, Southend, Essex, and crashed through a garden wall on Friday night.

Collision: Fourteen youngsters were hurt after a car smashed into them in Thorpe Bay, Essex

A 17-year-old youth has been arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving.

The injured were understood to be among a group of 30 youngsters mainly from the Southend High Schools for Boys and Girls.

Witness Bilquis Agha, a GP, said: ‘It was terrible. There were children scattered everywhere. Their bodies were twisted and they were unconscious.

‘There were three on my driveway, two boys and a girl. I cleared the airways of the girl. She was breathing and had a head injury and there was blood in her hair. The father of one of the boys arrived and he was crying.

‘The police got here so quickly. The paramedics were fantastic. There were a lot of children about crying and screaming. The driver was not injured but extremely dazed.’

Dr Agha added: ‘It was a birthday party. I think they had been to Nando’s restaurant in the town and they must have been walking home, or standing about talking, when they were hit.

‘I heard a loud bang and children screaming but I thought they were messing about.

‘It was only when my granddaughter who lives next door came running in and said, “Nanny please come outside, my friends are on the road and they’ve had an accident’’ that I realised something terrible had happened.

‘There were children everywhere.

‘One of the friends of the girl who was badly injured would not leave until the ambulance had taken her away. She was crying her eyes out and very, very distraught.’

The road was closed for more than five hours as police accident investigators searched the wreckage.

Police have appealed for witnesses to come forward.