It was the last night at the school and we were all feeling a little worn out. Mike, Rob and I decided to have a few drinks down at The Bear and then meet the rest of them at The Elms, (not a pub I would want to spend a lot of time in).
After we’d had a few in The Bear we were feeling a bit merry and at 10:30 we thought we had better walk up the The Elms.As we stepped outside the pub the sound of a small car driving at breakneck speed along the High Street heading away from the shops, stopped us in our tracks.
We all agreed the driver was lucky not to crash. The car disappeared off and we continued on our way. After a short time the car came back along High Street towards the shops. Even more horrified we watched with a sense of foreboding as it accelerated at well over 60mph into the hustle and bustle of a Saturday night in Street.
Then we heard it. A dull thud. Then silence. We looked at each other. Rob said “That was a bloody body”. He was right. I got on my bike, which I had been pushing, and pedaled down the road. On the pavement to the right I saw a man minus his trousers lying in a pool of blood and with a broken arm.
He was conscious and speaking but was clearly agitated and in some pain from his arm. Luckily Rob caught the registration number before the car sped off leaving the man for dead.
The driver was apparently a local girl who was not, it later turned out, drunk just in high spirits. We stayed long enough to give our names to the police as witnesses and today they rang up (3 days later) to take some details.
I was a bit disappointed to find no details of the hit and run on the local news websites. Perhaps this is such a common occurrence in Somerset that it doesn’t warrant reporting. I’m glad I am not often required to administer first aid in such instances very often, my hands were covered in blood.