Driver’s £2,700 bill after police car chase

A WOMAN was left with a £2,700 bill to repair her car after she was hit by a driver being chased by the police.

Minnie Wilson was left stunned by the incident, which happened on a busy Henley road as she was on her way to buy petrol.

Now she is trying to find out from the police who the driver was so she can claim on her insurance.

Mrs Wilson, 77, of Nicholas Road, Henley, was driving her Nissan Juke along Reading Road towards Shiplake when the incident happened near the Harpsden Road junction at about 11.30am on Tuesday, January 30.

Mrs Wilson said: “Suddenly I could see flashing blue lights and I’m pretty sure there was a siren going. The traffic coming the other way was all beginning to stop and that’s the way the police car was coming. I thought, ‘Oh, he’s obviously chasing somebody’, not thinking anything was on my side.

“Then suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I could see a black car coming along at speed on the pavement on my side. Well, half on the pavement and half on the road, squeezing past. I was so shocked.

“Then I heard a bang and thought, ‘Oh God’. To say I was absolutely, well, stunned doesn’t even hit the spot.”

The black car struck the nearside front of her vehicle as it went past but the driver did not stop.

Mrs Wilson said: “I didn’t even look in my rear-view mirror to see if he’d hit the car behind or whatever because I was just so in shock. A nanosecond and he had already gone. I didn’t really see what happened to the police car.”

She didn’t know what to do next as she couldn’t think clearly.

“The traffic started to move off ahead,” said Mrs Wilson. “One or two of the drivers coming towards me wound their windows down and were asking, ‘Are you okay?’. I was just trying to think of what to do next. Whether I should have got out of the car and gone to the car behind to get a witness statement, I don’t know.

“All I could think was, ‘I need to talk to somebody’ and ‘I want to know if my car is driveable’.”

Mrs Wilson drove directly to Newtown Motors in Newtown Road, fearing her car would be a write-off.

In fact, the damage was not as bad as she feared.

Mrs Wilson said: “When I got there I went to the front of the car and realised that he’d smashed into it.

“The wheel arch was hanging off and there were scrapes on the metal alloy.

“I went in and I said, ‘I don’t know whether to sit in your chair and cry or quite what to do’.

“A guy came out with me and had a look and said, ‘You know it’s just the wheel arch that’s come off. He then had a look and a feel and said it was driveable.”

Newtown Motors repaired a damaged rod that deals with tyre tracking which had been bent in the crash.

She then drove to D D Autocare in Rotherfield Greys, which later carried out repairs costing £2,715, including VAT.

On the way back home, she went to the Shell petrol station in Reading Road, which she had planned to do before the incident.

She also went to the police station in Greys Road.

Mrs Wilson said: “I thought, ‘I may as well just ask them, you know, what should I do?’ But of course it’s closed.

“By some miracle, a policeman comes out the back and I said, ‘Ah’. I was almost in tears.

“I told him what had happened and he got on his radio. He said there had been a huge car chase. He said, ‘We’ve been after this bloke for a long time’.” The officer gave her an incident number and advised her to go home and call Thames Valley Police on 101.

Since the incident, Mrs Wilson has made a number of calls and sent emails to the police in a bid to make an insurance claim for the damage to her car but has so far been unsuccessful.

She said: “I am an elderly person and have tried to assimilate all this information and just think, you know, ‘What do I do?’.

“There’s no one to ask or to do it for you — I feel dizzy just talking about it.

“I am now thinking about all the things I should have done. I should have got out of the car and gone and said to the people behind, ‘Would you witness what happened?’ but it’s just too late now. It all happened so quickly.”

David and Gill Duford, owners of D D Autocare, said: “We just wanted to help Minnie.

“We know her so well and she is a wonderful lady who has been a loyal customer for many years.

“We wrote down what the car needed, in terms of replacement and rang up regarding the prices. The quote included the repair, labour and paint costs.

“When we do the repairs regarding paintwork, we say ‘Think about it as ladies' nails’ — you have to do it in layers of painting and drying.

“You also have to make sure it matches and is seamless with the other panels of the car.

“We have been here for more than 30 years and are the longest tenants in the Greys Green Business Centre and have a brilliant customer base.

“We are just happy to help our customers in a time of need.”

Thames Valley Police declined to comment, saying the force’s policy was not to comment on crashes that didn’t cause disruption.