Mum hit by lorry calls for parking restrictions

Yvonne Clarke locked herself out of her house in Wellington Gardens on Tuesday May 11 and at 5pm walked to a friend's house in North Trade Road to pick up a spare key.

A lorry, pushing to get past parked cars and motorists coming in the opposite direction, mounted the pavement and hit Yvonne's right hand.

Yvonne said: "He smacked my hand and the pain was unbearable and I went down on my knees.

"And no one stopped to help me."

She carried on walking towards the police station, where her arm was put in a sling.

Yvonne spent seven hours in A&E and after several x-rays, doctors told her they thought she had two cracked bones.

She was put in temporary plaster for a week and is now in a splint for two weeks after doctors said she was "badly bruised, right down to the bone".

Yvonne fears it is only a matter of time before a serious accident happens along North Trade Road because of selfish motorists unwilling to give way.

She said: "My concern is someone is going to die.

"I was very, very lucky it was just my hand that got clumped."

She added: "In the morning, when the kids are going to school, all the cars and lorries are going on the pavement because no one will give way.

"The lollipop lady has had several near misses.

"There was a gentleman who had his ear clipped by a bus and an elderly lady who had her elbow clipped on the pavement."

Yvonne is calling for double yellow lines on the left hand side of North Trade Road or white lines to prevent parking between 7am-7pm, along with higher kerbs on that side of the road.

Yvonne, who says she has heard of 21 near misses on North Trade Road in the last year, hopes to launch a petition shortly, with the support of the police.

Yvonne, who has lived in Battle for around 40 years, says her 10-year-old son feels unsafe walking down North Trade Road.

The accident has meant Yvonne, who works as a waitress at Benji's Coffee Shop, has been signed off work for up to four weeks.

She can't drive, so is unable to take her 23-year-old daughter, who has severe learning difficulties, to day care at the Conquest Hospital in Hastings.

Yvonne is also struggling to wash and care for her daughter.

Kathryn Field, East Sussex County Councillor for Battle and Crowhurst, is supporting Yvonne's campaign for parking restrictions.

Cllr Field said: "It's not the first incident of people being hit by vehicles whilst on the pavement.

"The parking is a problem, but the real problem is the bad manners of so many drivers who won't wait for appropriate spaces in the traffic.

"I have seen drivers weave in and out of children."

Police say they are treating the incident as a hit-and-run, but say the lorry driver may not have known he had hit Yvonne.

Sgt Dan Russell, of Battle police, said: "We are working with her and Highways in relation to getting possible parking restrictions in North Trade Road.

"We are looking at potentially getting a white line or double yellow lines."

He added that vehicles mounting the pavement was a "regular occurrence".