Horse and rider injured in hit and run

A horse rider from Worcester was left lying injured at the side of the road after being hit by a driver, who then fled the scene.

Knocked to ground

Stacey Johnson, 20, was riding her horse Roo when a silver estate car crashed into them in Droitwich last Sunday afternoon around 4.30pm.

Both horse and rider were knocked to the ground, before the car sped off, leaving Stacey and Roo badly injured in the road.

Lucky escape

Initially thought to have broken her back, it transpired Stacey had sustained nerve damage on the right side of her back, leaving her in intense and immobilising pain.

Her horse escaped with some bruising, but was left shaken by the ordeal.

“We are both very, very lucky to come away with minor injuries. They could have killed us,” Stacey told the Droitwich Spa Advertiser. “The car came flying around the corner and took us out completely.”

Stacey was discharged from hospital on Tuesday.

Thousands of incidents

The incident is just one of more than 2,000 reported road accidents involving equestrians in the UK that have been recorded since the British Horse Society launched its incident reporting web page, five years ago.

This year the BHS launched a ‘Dead Slow’ campaign, to educate drivers how to safely pass horses on the road.

Information

The driver of the car that struck Roo and Stacey has yet to come forward, even though the impact is believed to have made significant damages to the car.

Anyone with any information can call non-emergency police number 101, quoting reference 0177-S-180716.