Mother of disabled family at the centre of puddle splash investigation says driver sped up and aimed at them when she gestured to slow down and her children have been ill for …
Published: 12:37, 7 January 2024 | Updated: 12:37, 7 January 2024
The mother of a disabled family who were left soaked after a driver sped through a puddle has said her children have been left ill for days after the incident.
The woman, who requested to remain anonymous, says she gestured at the motorist to slow down as they made their way down the flooded Hearthcote Road in Swadlincote, Derbyshire on Tuesday.
However, the driver did the opposite and ‘deliberately’ splashed all five family members, including a child in a wheelchair and another with severe PTSD.
The children’s mother described the motorist’s behaviour as ‘unbelievably callous’, leaving one of the youngsters vomiting for two days after the event.
The mother told MailOnline: ‘I mean. first of all, it’s an offence. It was a very deliberate act, and apparently the police plastered it as an assault.
The children’s mother and grandmother described the motorist’s behaviour as ‘unbelievably callous’, leaving one of the youngsters vomiting for two days after the event
The woman, who requested to remain anonymous, says she gestured at the motorist to slow down as they made their way down the flooded Hearthcote Road in Swadlincote, Derbyshire on Tuesday
‘Three of the children are disabled. The two younger children had degenerative diseases, they struggle to walk at the best of times and the older ones in in her wheelchair.
‘If it was the fact that the driver hadn’t seen it and was concentrating on trying to get through the water safely.
That would be a different matter. But this was very deliberate.
‘As he was approaching slowly, I put my hand up because any ripple was going to wet us. I put my hand up and gestured for him to stop and slow down, and he did completely the opposite.
‘It’s quite a wide road, and most of the traffic was going slowly through the middle to avoid making any kind of waves.
He deliberately put his foot down and drove at us.
‘My 8-year-old has been vomiting for two days. I can’t help but think that’s as a result of the incident, because the amount of water that they must have ingested in the puddle, which had been there for two days with an awful lot of traffic going through, so I dread to think what was in the puddle.’
The family, made up of the mother and her four children, were out for a stroll at around 2.20pm when a white car approached them and left them soaking wet.
The mother says her children were freezing cold for hours after the ordeal and have not left the house since.
She added: ‘The two young ones really struggled to stay warm at the best of times and it took over an hour to warm them up.
‘We got home, changed them, put the heating on and wrapped them in blankets. But it was an hour before they felt warm again.
‘We haven’t actually been out.
Just because of the weather and everything. But how they’ll feel when we’re actually out again, walking along the roads. I don’t know.
‘I know certainly my eldest son just wouldn’t feel safe now.
Because it will take him a long time before he feels safe again because anything unexpected really kind of triggers his PTSD.’
A veteran officer has criticised a police force for wasting their time hunting a driver who sped through a large puddle and soaked a family, when they should be ‘finding burglars and thieves’.
Derbyshire Police state they are aware of the incident and efforts to trace the driver are continuing, but many members of the public feel the force are wasting their time.
Mick Neville, a former Scotland Yard detective, supported this point of view, telling the MailOnline it was an ‘easy case’ for the local community support officer if they had the car’s registration number.
Mr Neville said: ‘If they have a registration number it seems an easy case for the local PCSO to ‘have a word’, but if not they should be trying to find burglars and thieves.’
Mick Neville, a former Scotland Yard detective, supported this point of view, telling the MailOnline it was an ‘easy case’ for the local community support officer if they had the car’s registration number
Social media users voiced their frustration
Many felt it was a waste of police time
Moe criticism towards Derbyshire Police
Others agreed with Mick Neville and believed the police should be focusing their attentions elsewhere
Social media users took to X, formally known as Twitter, to express their frustration at the police hunt for the driver.
One user posted: ‘FFS. Plod must be completely bored, and it must be a slow news day in Swadlincote, if this is all they’ve got’
Another said: ‘Seriously? Tens of thousands of unsolved crimes but this gets their attention?’
A third wrote: ‘FFS!
Who would call the police because they got wet?! Time wasters!’
A fourth simply put: ‘Meanwhile… In proper crime…….
Police can’t be bothered.’
The woman involved in the incident said that two of the children are physically disabled and were distressed by the ordeal.
She said: ‘My son is 6ft tall and he was drenched. The water went right over his head.
‘My two-year-old granddaughter was screaming, “I don’t like it”. The pushchair was wet through.”
‘I was shocked more than anything.
It’s unbelievably callous.’
Responding to claims that this incident was a waste of police time, the mother asked people to put themselves in her situation of looking after three disabled children when such a ‘callous act’ takes place.
She said: ‘I think you have to put yourself in that position where you’ve got three disabled children that you’ve then got to get home and dry and warm.
‘It just feels such a callous act, when you just need to slow down and be kind, instead you do something so deliberate.’
Splashing a pedestrian by driving through puddles next to a pavement can be deemed a criminal offence, with possible fines of up to GBP5,000 and nine points to a license, under the Road Traffic Act 1988.
If motorists are caught, they are likely to be handed a GBP100 fixed penalty notice and three penalty points.
Derbyshire Police have been approached for a comment.
Elsewhere , shocking dashcam footage was shared yesterday showing a motorist driving through a puddle and callously soaking a binman trying to clear up after the festive period[2], leaving locals outraged and demanding police action.
Retired cop Julie Lancaster was astonished when she witnessed the incident in Chandler’s Ford, Hampshire, as Storm Henk drenched Britain earlier this week.
The 64-year-old former sergeant was driving home from the dry cleaners when she spotted the binman on the other side of the road collecting loose cardboard next to the puddle.
References
- ^ Frankie Elliott (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ motorist driving through a puddle and callously soaking a binman trying to clear up after the festive period (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Met Police (www.dailymail.co.uk)