Blackburn Magistrates' Court heard the car ran over her leg and smashed her face into a stone wall outside Great Harwood Cricket Club in Old Blackburn Road She suffered a broken leg and a bleed on the brain among other injuries from the crash on August 12, 2023. The driver, Greg Brooks, left the scene in his 1.2 ton Audi Q2 SUV without stopping and later claimed he thought he had just clipped a wing mirror on the wall.
Brooks, 59, of Singletons Avenue, Read, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury to Susan Entwistle by careless driving. He was made subject to a community order for 12 months with 20 days of rehabilitation activity requirements and 200 hours of unpaid work. He was also banned from driving for 18 months and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £114 victim surcharge.
District Judge Alexandra Preston said she was "very surprised" Brooks had not been charged with failing to stop at the scene of a crash. "It beggars belief that he did not know he had hit a person and thought he had clipped a wall," said District Judge Preston. She said the victim was hit from behind as she walked her dog on what she described as a "beautiful evening".
"She does not remember the collision but it has left her with lasting physical and emotional scars," said District Judge Preston. "As you didn't stop she lay unconscious on the pavement and a passer called the ambulance for her. She spent 12 days in hospital as a result of her injuries.
"It is hard to understand how you could have run a woman over on the pavement and just thought your wing mirror had clipped a wall," she added. Zulekha Bhutan, prosecuting, said the incident happened at 7.47 pm and police caught up with Brooks at around 10.
15pm. He gave a breathalyser reading of 36 micrograms of alcohol per 100ml of breath at that time, against the legal limit of 35mcg per 100ml, but was under the limit when he provided an evidential sample at the police station, though these tests were taken more than two hours after the incident. In a victim personal statement, Mrs Entwistle said she had multiple physical scars but the emotional ones were the worst.
She said she used to walk her dog for many miles every day but had not been able to do that. She had also stopped driving and could no longer do yoga because of the pain in her back and legs. "I struggle to believe a person can (hit) an older lady innocently walking her dog and not stop to check if she was dead or needed emergency treatment," she said.
Jonathan Taylor, mitigating, said his client, a self-employed mechanic, had no previous convictions. "He accepts he has let himself down very badly," said Mr Taylor. He said Brooks knew a collision had taken place but was not aware of the fact he had mounted the pavement.
"He is adamant he would have stopped had he known he had hit a person," said Mr Taylor. "It is something he deeply regrets what happened. It has a profound effect on him, realising someone has been injured as a result of his actions.
"He would welcome the opportunity to meet with her and apologise face-to-face," said Mr Taylor. "He hopes that can happen and that it will make things easier for the lady. If the best indication of the future is the past, he will not be appearing in court again.
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