Hunt for motorist who ‘sped up deliberately to splash disabled family’

A mother whose family was left soaked after a driver sped through a puddle next to them has said her children – including three with disabilities – were ill for days after the incident.

The woman, who requested to remain anonymous, says she gestured at the motorist to slow down as the mum and her four children made their way down the flooded Hearthcote Road in Swadlincote, Derbyshire on Tuesday.

However, the driver ‘deliberately’ splashed all five, including a child in a wheelchair. The mother described the motorist’s behaviour as ‘unbelievably callous’, leaving one of the youngsters vomiting for two days.

She said: ‘First of all, it’s an offence. It was a very deliberate act, and apparently the police [classified] it as an assault.

‘Three of the children are disabled. The two younger children have degenerative diseases, they struggle to walk at the best of times and the older one’s 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 deliberate.

‘As he was approaching slowly, I put my hand up. I gestured for him to stop and slow down, and he did the opposite.’

She said her children were left freezing cold for hours after the ordeal and have been unwell.

Derbyshire Police said efforts to trace the driver are continuing. Mick Neville, a former Scotland Yard detective, said it should be an ‘easy case’ for the local community support officer ‘to have a word’ if they had the car’s registration number. He added: ‘If not, they should be trying to find thieves.’

Splashing a pedestrian by driving through puddles next to a pavement can be a criminal offence, with fines of up to £5,000 and nine penalty points, under the Road Traffic Act 1988. More usually, motorists receive a £100 fixed penalty notice and three points.