Mum shaken by school-route assault
A Nelson transport advocate who was assaulted after a confrontation over parking said the experience has left her even more determined to work for safer streets.
Rebecca Glen had just collected her children from Hampden Street School and was walking on Waimea Rd with a friend, Clare Scott. The two women, with a walking bus of eight children, were heading towards Franklyn St, where they intended to celebrate the opening of a new pedestrian crossing.
When the pair encountered a car parked over the footpath, Scott asked the owner to move it so the children didn’t have to step into the busy street.
After a lengthy exchange, during which several people came out of the house, the car’s owner agreed to move the vehicle. The women had begun to move away when a woman approached them.
‘‘She charged over to me and spat in my face,’’ Glen said. She said the woman then punched her in the jaw, leaving a cut under Glen’s lip and on the inside of her mouth.
Glen was left shaken with blood running down her face. But the incident had not deterred her from her goal of making the roads safer, she said. ‘‘Every child should be able to get to school safely.’’
Scott, who witnessed the incident, said it left a cloud over what should have been a positive day. ‘‘This was going to be a happy story about the opening of the [Franklyn St] crossing. It was really sweet – some councillors were waiting with flowers and they had decorated the crossing. But then this happened.’’
Scott said she was frustrated by the situation, as cars parked across the footpath were a consistent problem for kids walking to school.
‘‘[The assault and the crossing] are totally unrelated, but at the same time it’s the same thing. It’s the constant struggle to make it safe for kids to walk to school.’’
A police spokeswoman confirmed police were called to a disorder incident on Waimea Rd.
A 26-year-old woman was due to appear in the Nelson District Court yesterday charged with common assault.