The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Comedian’s mum hurt in hit-and-run
Crash: Brand cancels Aberdeen show
Russell Brand’s mother was taken to hospital after a hit-and-run crash involving her son’s chauffeur while on her way to babysit.
Barbara Brand, 71, was bleeding from her nose and the back of her head after the Audi she was travelling in was involved in a headon crash with a hire car.
The grandmother told passers-by she was on her way to babysit.
The chauffeur who was driving the black Audi, which is a 2014 model, was said to be “screaming in pain” after the crash on a lane in Brentwood, Essex, on Thursday.
The comedian was due to appear at his show at His Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen on Thursday night but had to postpone due to a “personal emergency”.
A witness said he saw a black Vauxhall Astra hire car zoom around a bend before ploughing into the Audi, and then the man behind the wheel made a getaway on foot.
The passer-by said: “Russell’s mum’s car was driving in front of my partner. Another car came round the bend on the right hand side of the road.
“He lost control of it, hit the kerb and went on to the other side of the road where he hit the Audi.”
A spokesman for Essex Police said officers were called out to a collision on Mascalls Lane in Warley at about 11.40am.
He said: “The driver and passenger in the Audi, a man aged in his 40s and a woman aged in her 70s, were taken to hospital with injuries that were not believed to be life threatening.
“The occupant of the Astra had left the scene before emergency services arrived and inquiries are ongoing to locate them.”