Five men flee from high-speed crash
FIVE men fled the scene of a highspeed crash which saw a wheel bounce down the road and hit a taxi.
A Ford Focus smashed into a wall on Mellor Street in Rochdale in the early hours of Monday.
Witnesses say moments later the driver and four passengers got into another car and fled the scene.
The force of the smash was so severe a wheel from the blue Focus, careered about 100 metres along the street before hitting a parked Mercedes taxi. Debris from the wreckage was also strewn across the road.
Tony Finbarr-Smith, of Mellor Street, said: “We heard a screech and a smash and looked out the window and saw the car sideways across the road.
“Then another car pulled up and five lads got out of the wreck, grabbed a few things then got in the car and it sped off.
“They’ve been very lucky to walk away from it because looking at the damage they have been going at some speed.
“One of the tyres flew off the Ford and bounced down the road for about 100 metres before hitting a taxi that was parked up.”
It comes three weeks after a driver smashed a 4x4 into the Ron Chalker potato factory on the same stretch of road before fleeing from the scene in a wheelchair.
As the Observer reported at the time eye witnesses said the blue Mitsubishi crashed into a barrier at the front of the factory on February 19 before smashing into the building.
They then saw a male passenger get out of the vehicle, produce a wheelchair from the boot and help the driver, a woman, into the chair before fleeing from the scene and abandoning the vehicle.
And Tony says the two incidents show the need for traffic calming measures on the street.
He said: “There is a new estate being built. All the neighbours are families and we’re all really concerned about the speeding. It’s like a Formula One track down here.”
Steve Reay, head of highways at Rochdale Council, said: “As we don’t know the specific circumstances surrounding this incident, it would be inappropriate to comment. The police only inform us of a road collision if they deem it to be a serious accident.
“If a number of serious accidents occur in a particular location, we assess the situation and decide what action needs to be taken, if any.”
A spokesperson for GMP said police were called to Mellor Street at 12.32am to reports of a ‘fail to stop’ collision.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call 101 quoting reference number 51 of Monday, March 13.