A furious mum has issued a heartbreaking photo as a stark warning to drivers after her eight-year-old lad was left wheelchair-bound and begging to die.
Michelle Collins thought her youngest, Finlay, was dead when she caught sight of his “ripped bloodstained Liverpool shirt.”
The horrified mum watched him go under the wheels of a van before he came out of the back of the vehicle like a “crisp packet blowing in the wind”.
Finlay – who will be in a wheelchair for at least 12 months – was knocked off his scooter in July, fracturing his skull and badly injuring his leg.
His mum said her son’s suffering was ” indescribable” since the accident, adding he “begs to die”.
Finlay had emerged in front of a Chrysler that had stopped on a pedestrian crossing to pick someone up from Hall i’th’ Wood rail station, in Bolton, Gtr Mancs.
Finlay had been riding his scooter while on a walk with his mother and nine-year-old sister Sophia.
Sophia crossed to the traffic island but as Finlay entered the road he was struck by a black Honda before he went under the wheels of a van.
The Honda was in the same lane as the Chrysler but, as the car had stopped in the road, the driver of the Honda had to move into the second lane to get around it.
It was at this point that Finlay was hit by the Honda.
Miss Collins said: “I saw him enter the road in front of the car and then he was struck and I screamed ‘no, no’.
“He disappeared from view and then I saw him come flying out of the underneath of the van like a crisp packet blowing in the wind.
“I thought the worst, I could see his ripped bloodstained Liverpool shirt and he was unconscious.”
Finlay, of Bolton, was taken to intensive care at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital where he was treated for a fractured skull, a bleed on the brain and partial amputation to his left leg.
He had to have several operations to insert rods and screws into his leg and will have to be in a wheelchair for at least the next 12 months.
Miss Collins has now issued a warning to dangerous drivers who stop in dangerous spots.
She said: “I just want to get across to everyone that the smallest driving offence that you think is insignificant can cause devastating injuries and have catastrophic consequences.”
“People need to think: ‘There’s a reason why I shouldn’t be stopping here’. If you see other people parked where they shouldn’t be then others need to slow down and be aware that there could be a hazard.
“The decision to stop there to pick that person up has destroyed our lives.”
The warning came as the driver of the car that was parked on the main carriageway was sentenced for the part she played in the accident.
Susan Banister, 50, of Bolton, pleaded guilty to causing her Chrysler Voyager to remain at rest in Crompton Way in such a position to involve a danger of injury to other persons using the road.
Banister was fined £750 at Bolton Magistrates Court on Tuesday and disqualified from driving for 12 months.
Darin Millar, defending, said: “This is a desperate tragedy and the defendant is desperately upset.”
Miss Collins, who is also mum to Zander aged 11, added: “All of my children have suffered tremendously because of what has happened.
“Finlay’s suffering is indescribable, the pain he has to go through on a daily basis is terrible.
“He screams and begs to die.
“The main injustice is the law. We appreciate that the magistrates did all they could with the sentence today but the problem is the laws.”
