Cardiff hit-and-run incidents
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Cowbridge Road West at Ely Fire Station, scene of one of the incidents p.twimg.com
by Peter Law via twitter 10/19/2012 4:22:38 PM -
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"The whole of the front of Ely fire station is closed off with blue crime scene tape. There are police numbers used to mark evidence all over the yard of the fire station. I counted twenty odd of the yellow markings with numbers of them," says former councillor Jacqui Gasson
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Lynda Paterson, who lives on Cowbridge Road West, told the BBC that the scene outside her house was chaos.
"I was going to pick my children up from school and I could see there were police and someone was lying on the floor, on the pavement," she told the BBC
"I could see police running back and forth along the road and I now know there was a child... who had been hit.
"The police were running down because the ambulance hadn't come." -
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Hailie Jacobs, from Ely, told the BBC that the incident had left her scared.
"I noticed all the police and ambulance first. They'd taped off the road in various parts," she said.
"Some of it was absolutely manic and there was a paramedic working on someone on the ground.
"There were just loads of ambulances and police cars and even two helicopters above.
"It was all quite scary, we live near there and it's all places where I walk my children." -
One eyewitness, Stuart Bateman, who was sat on a bus outside the fire station on Western Avenue says he saw a white van on the side of the road and a woman was waving frantically at it as he got off the bus.
He said: "There was complete panic. the van sped off away from the fire station and a silver car chased it.
"I dialled 999 and somebody else got the registration number of the van.
"There was a quick response ambulance at the fire station and the paramedic tended to a woman who was most badly injured.
"Then a police car arrived to help. I could see there were people on the ground but I am not sure whether one of them was a child.
"There was still complete panic." -
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South Wales Police due to hold a media briefing on today's hit and run incidents at 7pmby ciaranjones1 via twitter 10/19/2012 5:37:56 PM
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Ms Haywood said: "I was filling up with petrol and I saw a taxi driver going to help another guy who had been hit on the head with a steering wheel immobiliser. I think he got hit as well.
“The guy who was hitting them walked over to his white van which was parked at the petrol pumps.
“I checked his registration number and meanwhile the taxi driver ahead of me at the pump got back into his car shaken up and drove off.
“Just as I was making the phonecall to the emergency services the white van that had been sitting there for a while suddenly sped off, screeching and with smoke coming from the tyres. -
She added: "The next thing I heard was a scream and a thump.
“There was a woman who was in front of his van who was hitting the front of his bonnet because he had hit her. She then went under the wheels of his van.
“So we were all screaming ‘back-up, back-up’. There were a lot of people there.
“So he did back up and then he ran over her again. -
Describing the scene at Asda in Leckwith, Ms Heywood said: "Then this other woman came up to the van to get him to stop and he ran over her as well and he dragged them both to the corner of the roundabout and out into the road which leads back onto the main road and he hit another man coming the other way who opened his car door to stop him.
“He just drove into his car door and sped off with screeching tyres down the road leaving the two women very seriously injured." -
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A Welsh Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “The Welsh Ambulance Service has responded to a number of road traffic collisions in the Ely and Leckwith areas of Cardiff this afternoon.
“Eight emergency ambulances, five rapid response vehicles, four ambulance officers, two basics doctors and one Helimed attended several calls along Crossways Road, Cowbridge Road West, Grand Avenue, and Sloper Road.
“Twelve casualties, including adults and children, have been taken to the University Hospital of Wales with various injuries, some serious.
The A&E Dept at UHW has been closed to anything other than casualties related to these incidents. In the meantime, the ambulance service is liaising with hospitals in the region including The Royal Gwent and The Royal Glamorgan to convey emergency patients.” -
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Expecting a police press conference on today's Cardiff road collisions shortly. I'll be tweeting liveby ciaranjones1 via twitter 10/19/2012 6:26:20 PM
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We're expecting to hear from Superintendent Julian Williams of South Wales Police. Press conference at Cardiff Bay police stationby ciaranjones1 via twitter 10/19/2012 6:29:25 PM
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Reverend Jan Gould, of the Church of the Resurrection, said the Ely community had been left "deeply shocked" by today's events.
"We have opened the church if anybody wants to come in," she said. "It's a deeply shocking incident and nothing I have ever remembered in my ministry is as traumatic as this." -
Aaron Ward, who lives off Cowbridge Road West, was at the retail park at Leckwith moments after the drama unfolded.
He said: "I pitched in and helped however I could. I just saw the back of the white van and police rushing in. He hit two women and dragged them 250 yards under the van.
"The mother was in a serious condition. The daughter was complaining of spinal injuries. I just dragged the first aid kit from one of the police vans and pitched in however I could, applying pressure to injuries and helping paramedics.
"The injuries were horrific, where she [the mother] had been dragged along the road. It's absolutely disgusting what's happened." -
What happened in Cardiff this evening is tragic, but closing the A&E department in the biggest hospital in wales to anybody not involved in the incident baffles me, the news are reporting 11 people injured, is that all it takes to close one of the only ER departments in the area? I dread to think what would happen if a bomb went off or a train derailed, the Heath Hospital wouldn't be able to manage. What about the rest of the population, where do they go tonight if something bad were to happen.
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i wouldn't comment too much just yet until you know all the facts, at least wait till the press conference is over, im sure there is a reason why they did this especially on a busy Friday night, hav esome thought for all the families that are awaiting news in A & E at the moment