Pensioner broke arm jumping out of path of car going wrong way (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Pensioner broke arm jumping out of path of car going wrong way

5:00pm Saturday 22nd September 2012 in News

A PENSIONER suffered a broken elbow after leaping out of the way of a speeding car coming the wrong way down a one way street.

The incident happened when 67-year-old Stephen Birtwell was crossing Bank Street, in Church, when the vehicle came ‘flying towards’ him.

The great-grandfather dived out of the way to avoid a collision and in doing so received a fracture to his elbow as well as cuts and grazes.

Mr Birtwell, who lives in Elmfield Street, said: “I was going to the Queen’s Pub for a pint. I looked one way but there was nothing coming so I started to cross.

“The driver came round the corner from Little Blackburn Road and just missed me, he was really speeding and was driving like a maniac.

“I just wanted to get out of the way. He never even looked to make sure I got away.

“I thought I had managed to get onto the pavement, but I just fell full length and hit my hand against the wall.”

The driver of the car, which Mr Birtwell said was a dark coloured Ford Mondeo-type vehicle, did not stop.

Mr Birtwell, a former labourer for Hallmark Cards, was so shocked by the incident, which happened at around 2pm on Thursday, that he walked back to the bus stop and went straight home, despite being in tremendous pain.

He said: “I could not think of anything, I was that dazed and shocked.

“There was nobody about and it took me ages to get up.

“I have asthma, blood clots on my lungs and COPD and I was a bit tight-chested but I did not have a mobile on me, all I wanted to do was get home.”

Once Mr Birtwell made it home, his wife Alwyn, 66, called for an ambulance.

He was taken to Royal Blackburn Hospital , where an x ray revealed he had broken his left elbow.

Mr Birtwell said: “The pain was horrible, they gave me all the morphine they could.

“It is still really sore and I cannot even do normal things like use a knife and fork.

“I think the driver should have the heart to admit it and come forward.

“It is a bit cowardly to just drive off.”

A police spokesman said: “A 67-year-old man was crossing the one-way road when a vehicle came flying in the wrong direction.

“The vehicle did not stop so we have no details of the car.

“We are making inquiries to see if there was any CCTV in the area.”

Anybody with information should call 101.