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- Nov 18, 2004
- 9,893
A suspected drink driver was beaten unconscious after a car hit a baby in a buggy on a pedestrian crossing and then smashed into a van.
The motorist was dragged out of the Audi A3 and punched repeatedly by a passer-by who had seen the car jump a red light, narrowly miss a group of children and plough into another vehicle.
It is believed the baby in the buggy escaped unharmed.
Last night police said the driver was being questioned after the terrifying incident in busy Lewes Road in Brighton.
A police spokeswoman said the man failed a breath test at the scene of the crash and was arrested on suspicion of drinkdriving while four times the legal drink drive limit. Witnesses said the Audi had been heading towards the centre of Brighton at 12.20pm yesterday when it narrowly missed a group of schoolchildren before crashing into a Meals on Wheels van while travelling on the wrong side of the road.
The police spokeswoman said the suspect was aged about 50 but not from the Brighton area.
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She said the driver was treated by paramedics at the scene and that officers had still not able to speak to him last night because he was "under the effects of medication".
The Audi hit the white Renault Clio van, driven by Meals on Wheels worker Jerry Swift, outside the Co-operative .
Mr Swift, 41, was turning right from Franklin Road when he saw the Audi come at him. Mr Swift, of Preston Road, said: "He had gone through a pedestrian crossing and through the red lights.
"The Audi hit the buggy; there was a little child inside. The car then hit me and spun my van completely around. My head hit the windscreen.
"I looked up and a man in the Audi was trying to get out of the car but another man grabbed him.
"He just started piling into the man in the Audi, punching him in the head and face.
"He started banging the man's head against the steering wheel.
The man was bleeding profusely.
He was completely out of it.
"A Good Samaritan came along and took the man from the Audi aside until the police arrived."
Mr Swift waited for the van to be towed away before he went to the Royal Sussex County Hospital to be checked out.
Phyllis Hamilton, who works at the nearby Franklin Tavern, was walking back to the pub from the Post Office when she saw the crash.
She said the Audi had jumped a red light on the crossing and clipped the buggy.
Mrs Hamilton said: "The black car carried on and the driver must have thought it was two-lane traffic as he was on the wrong side of the road.
"A man pulled the guy out of the Audi and gave him a hiding.
"I think he knocked him out as he was just lying on the ground. He was red in the face and his eyes had gone."
She said about six police cars and an ambulance arrived at the scene and the man from the Audi was treated by paramedics.
Mrs Hamilton said: "I think they treated him for injuries he got from being punched rather than the crash."
She said it was fortunate there were no children about from Fairlight Primary School, in St Leonard's Road. The school is just yards from the scene of the accident.
Anyone who saw the black Audi A3 as it was being driven should call Sussex Police's road policing unit in Hove on 0845 6070999 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.
The motorist was dragged out of the Audi A3 and punched repeatedly by a passer-by who had seen the car jump a red light, narrowly miss a group of children and plough into another vehicle.
It is believed the baby in the buggy escaped unharmed.
Last night police said the driver was being questioned after the terrifying incident in busy Lewes Road in Brighton.
A police spokeswoman said the man failed a breath test at the scene of the crash and was arrested on suspicion of drinkdriving while four times the legal drink drive limit. Witnesses said the Audi had been heading towards the centre of Brighton at 12.20pm yesterday when it narrowly missed a group of schoolchildren before crashing into a Meals on Wheels van while travelling on the wrong side of the road.
The police spokeswoman said the suspect was aged about 50 but not from the Brighton area.
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She said the driver was treated by paramedics at the scene and that officers had still not able to speak to him last night because he was "under the effects of medication".
The Audi hit the white Renault Clio van, driven by Meals on Wheels worker Jerry Swift, outside the Co-operative .
Mr Swift, 41, was turning right from Franklin Road when he saw the Audi come at him. Mr Swift, of Preston Road, said: "He had gone through a pedestrian crossing and through the red lights.
"The Audi hit the buggy; there was a little child inside. The car then hit me and spun my van completely around. My head hit the windscreen.
"I looked up and a man in the Audi was trying to get out of the car but another man grabbed him.
"He just started piling into the man in the Audi, punching him in the head and face.
"He started banging the man's head against the steering wheel.
The man was bleeding profusely.
He was completely out of it.
"A Good Samaritan came along and took the man from the Audi aside until the police arrived."
Mr Swift waited for the van to be towed away before he went to the Royal Sussex County Hospital to be checked out.
Phyllis Hamilton, who works at the nearby Franklin Tavern, was walking back to the pub from the Post Office when she saw the crash.
She said the Audi had jumped a red light on the crossing and clipped the buggy.
Mrs Hamilton said: "The black car carried on and the driver must have thought it was two-lane traffic as he was on the wrong side of the road.
"A man pulled the guy out of the Audi and gave him a hiding.
"I think he knocked him out as he was just lying on the ground. He was red in the face and his eyes had gone."
She said about six police cars and an ambulance arrived at the scene and the man from the Audi was treated by paramedics.
Mrs Hamilton said: "I think they treated him for injuries he got from being punched rather than the crash."
She said it was fortunate there were no children about from Fairlight Primary School, in St Leonard's Road. The school is just yards from the scene of the accident.
Anyone who saw the black Audi A3 as it was being driven should call Sussex Police's road policing unit in Hove on 0845 6070999 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.
