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I heard screech of tyres, then bones breaking - court
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| ACCUSED: Martin Willmott, leaving Worcester Magistrates Court yesterday |
REVELLERS have spoken about the terrifying moment they thought they were going to die when a car mounted the pavement and ploughed into them outside a bar.
Witnesses were flung in the air and suffered multiple injuries after a silver Jaguar hit them at various points on the footpath and in the road on St Nicholas Street, Worcester, a court was told.
They were speaking at the trial at Worcester Magistrates Court of Martin Willmott, of Tay Avenue, St Peter's, who denied dangerous driving.
Gavin Judd, who was out celebrating a friend's birthday, said he was walking to the Courtyard pub, now the Pitcher and Piano, when the car mounted the kerb.
He said: "In the next instant I heard a sound like a tyre screech come from behind me and all of a sudden a smack in the back and the sound of bones breaking. It's a sound I will never forget."
Mr Judd, who suffered a broken collar bone, broken shoulder, 12 broken ribs, and a suspected punctured lung, said: "I thought I had died."
CCTV footage showed Willmott's car braked twice in front of a group of four people before accelerating and swerving off to the right, mounting the kerb, and ploughing into a group of partygoers at the entrance of the pub at about 10pm on Thursday, August 24, 2006. It then swerved back to the left before hitting another two girls and stopping in the middle of the road.
Willmott, aged 57, yesterday denied the charge of driving a motor vehicle dangerously.
In a statement read out to the court, Andrew Wood said he was shunted against the wall by the car before he went to the aid of his friend Joseph Ridler, who was lying motionless on top of another victim on the pavement. He said: "Joe went unconscious and this scared me. I thought that he was going to die."
Another partygoer, Charlotte Humphries, said: "I got flung backwards and hit my head and back. Everything was a blur and there was screaming. I didn't know what was going on."
A total of seven people suffered head, back, and neck injuries in the incident which lasted about four seconds.
Immediately before Willmott's Jaguar mounted the kerb CCTV footage showed the car, which was not speeding, brake twice before it narrowly missed James Linney, who admitted crossing St Nicholas Street without looking.
Willmott's barrister suggested Mr Linney hit the car's bonnet as it passed him, causing the defendant, who tested negative on a breath test, to be "startled".
The trial will continue on Tuesday, April 1.
7:10am Friday 28th March 2008
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