A PENSIONER crashed her car into a young mother walking with her daughter and then drove away from the scene leaving the injured woman in a hedge.
Sheila Hutchinson thought she had either fainted or fallen asleep at the wheel and said she believed she had only collided with the hedge.
Hutchinson, 69, of Sower Carr Lane, Hambleton, pleaded guilty to failing to stop after an accident.
She was fined £150, ordered to pay £85 costs and the £15 victims’ surcharge and had seven motoring penalty points put on her licence by Blackpool magistrates.
Tracy Yates, prosecuting, said Claire Brown was walking along Carr Lane, Hambleton, with her 11-year-old daughter on May 23 at 4.30pm.
It was then that Hutchinson lost control of her Mazda 6 on a bend and collided with her.
Mrs Brown was thrown into a hedge and suffered severe bruising, whiplash and soft tissue damage.
Hutchinson did not stop, but she returned to the accident scene five minutes after.
Sarah Gruffydd, defending, said her client had been driving for 46 years and had never had an accident before.
Hutchinson had just returned from a cruise on which she had crossed three times zones.
When she returned to the accident scene Hutchinson immediately gave her name to the police and she had since telephoned the accident victim to see how she was.
Ms Gruffydd added: “She does not know what happened.
“She says this incident has haunted her. She genuinely believed on leaving the scene she had only hit a hedge.”
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