‘I wasn’t ill, it was a simple accident’

THE 84-year-old driver of a car which smashed into several vehicles at Chadderton Hall Park says he was not taken ill.

The motorist said the accident, on Wednesday lunch-time, happened when his foot slipped from the brake to the accelerator.

The man, who does not want to be named, was reversing his automatic Vauxhall Corsa into the only empty space on the car park when his foot slipped.

And he claims he bumped into seven cars, and not the nine reported in yesterday’s Chronicle.

He said: “I hit three cars by bumping sideways, which threw me across the car park and into two other cars, which shot me across into two other cars.

“I wasn’t ill and I wasn’t drunk, it was a pure and simple accident.

“I have been driving since 1945 and it is the first accident I have been in that was caused by me.”

The motorist added: “It was terrifying. I didn’t know what was happening.”

And he commended two youths for running to his aid and helping him out of the car and calling for help, as well as two women who were in the park and sat him down on a wall to recover.

He added: “It shocked me,” and said an ambulance was called and he was given a clean bill of health after he had an ECG, blood and oxygen tests.

Police said no charges would be brought against the driver.