Mum and children are lucky to be alive after near-fatal hit-and-run
Family traumatised following collision
A MUM and her three children have been traumatised after their car had a near-fatal collision with a suspected stolen car in Swanmore – with the driver running from the scene.
Stay-at-home mum Rebecca Gibbs, 45, was taking her children to visit their grandmother to celebrate her son George’s 18th birthday, when the crash occurred at Gravell Hill junction on Bishops Wood Road at 12.38pm on Saturday, June 15.
Rebecca thought she was ‘going to die’ when the Vauxhall Astra, which the police believe was stolen, ran across the junction in front of the family’s Ford Focus.
She said: ‘I don't remember much, but my daughter remembers the car coming across the road and all of us screaming.
‘They came straight across the road at speed.’
The family’s car was hit at such speed it was forced off the road into a hedge, with police saying had the Astra been ‘going any faster, they would have found fatalities’ at the scene, according to Rebecca.
The accident left Katie, 14, and George, who has autism, trapped inside the vehicle with their mum ‘blacked out’ from hitting her head during the collision, while their 12-year-old brother, Joby, managed to escape by climbing through a passenger side window.
Rebecca said: ‘Joby climbed out the window and helped George out.
‘He was amazing – he is going to be very spoiled for being so amazing.’
Witnesses driving behind the Ford Focus called an ambulance, with paramedics treating the family for their injuries, which included concussion and bruising.
Rebecca says she wants the four men in the Astra, who witnesses reported fled the scene, to realise ‘what they have put my children through.’
She said: ‘George wakes up screaming, sitting bolt upright in bed.
‘All the kids are having nightmares – they do not want to get in the car again.
‘We’re really lucky walking away with minor injuries.’
Police are appealing for information to find the men, with three of them being described by a police appeal as being white, aged between 18 and 25, and between 5ft 8in and 5ft 10in. The fourth man is believed to be between 30 and 40 years old and around 5ft 6ins.
Anyone with information should call police on 101, quoting crime reference number 44190205803.