Woman nearly killed in hit-and-run says life was ‘ruined’ – as worst areas for uninsured drivers are revealed
A woman who was nearly killed in a hit-and-run says her life was “ruined” and she wants the driver to get their “just deserts” – as police launch a national crackdown on dangerous uninsured motorists.
Sharon Cochrane spent four months in hospital after suffering a broken leg and arm, eight broken ribs, two broken collarbones and a fractured neck, as well as a bleed on the brain and a collapsed lung.
The 64-year-old Sainsbury’s employee was walking to work in East Ham in London when a car, being driven on the wrong side of the road, crashed into her on the pavement.
Mrs Cochrane told Sky News she was sent “flying into the road” during the incident in July 2018, while the suspected uninsured driver failed to stop and has never been caught.
Mrs Cochrane suffered a broken leg and arm, eight broken ribs and two broken collarbones. Pic: Sharon Cochrane
It comes as UK police forces enforce a week-long operation called Op Drive Insured, which aims to increase the number of uninsured vehicles seized across the country.
Extra attention will be given to the worst-affected parts of the UK, with Birmingham having the highest levels of uninsured driving, according to Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB).
The not-for-profit organisation, which compensates victims of collisions involving hit-and-run drivers and uninsured vehicles, said it received more than 26,000 claims in 2021.
Hunt for hit-and-run driver
Mrs Cochrane said she had to learn to walk again and was bedridden at home for 11 months after being discharged from hospital.
She can no longer drive, she continues to suffer swelling on her legs, and she is unable to bend one of her arms.
Sharon Cochrane says her life is still affected by the hit-and-run more than four years later
“Four months in hospital, 11 months to walk again – your life is ruined,” Mrs Cochrane told Sky News.
“I can’t drive any more because of the pins I’ve got everywhere. All the swelling I’ve still got. There’s so much I can’t do.
“Without catching anyone, you don’t seem to have any closure… you can’t see justice served.
“If they had caught him, and he had been drunk or had been on drugs, he would have got his comeuppance.
“He might still have, who knows? Something might have happened – his car might have blown up, his house might have caught fire.
“We wish all we can on him and hope he gets his just deserts.”
‘My life was ruined’
Mrs Cochrane said she has no memory of being hit by the car and woke up in intensive care at the Royal Free Hospital in London, surrounded by her family.
Police appealed for information after the hit-and-run but no one has been caught. Pic: Sharon Cochrane
“Doctors said to me, they’ve had people with a lot less injuries not make it,” she added.
“Normally I’m a strong person but when I saw what I couldn’t do for 11 months – and in my head thinking, this is going to be forever, not walking, stuck in a bed… the thought of it was making me sick.”
In a message to the driver, Mrs Cochrane said: “My life, my husband’s life, everything was ruined because of this.
“We can all mistakes – god, I’ve made hundreds in my life – but I personally would have at least stopped and called an ambulance.”
Worst areas for uninsured drivers revealed
Ranked by postal areas, Birmingham has the five locations with the highest levels of uninsured driving, based on MIB claims, followed by Purfleet in Essex, Smethwick in the West Midlands and the Manchester areas of Cheetham Hill, Crumpsall and Strangeways.
Motorcyclist Graham Hills said he was left in “excruciating” pain and expected to die after he was hit by an uninsured car while he was riding at 60mph.
Graham Hills spent 102 days in hospital after being hit by an uninsured car. Pic: Graham Hills
The 64-year-old spent 102 days in hospital after needing emergency operations to repair a punctured lung, cut spleen, open pelvis, torn rectum, four major ligaments in his knee, a broken ankle and several broken ribs.
The collision happened on the A262 in Kent in July 2018 after an elderly driver of an uninsured car suddenly turned into the opposite lane, causing Mr Hills to hit the vehicle head-on.
“I had a momentary flash in my mind – that’s it, I was instantly convinced I was going to die,” he told Sky News.
“I remember being on my back some way beyond the car, having hit it and flown over the top of it and just being very surprised I was still alive and struggling to breathe, with very severe pelvic pain.
“You probably couldn’t get much more pain and still be alive.”
Mr Hills said he ‘expected to die’ when he was struck by the vehicle
Careless driving prosecution
Mr Hills was flown by air ambulance to King’s College Hospital in London, where he had two spells in intensive care after contracting gangrene and sepsis.
He said the driver of the uninsured vehicle was prosecuted for careless driving and driving without insurance and received eight points on his licence and was fined £400.
“That doesn’t feel quite enough,” Mr Hills added.
He said the MIB helped him secure compensation of about £230,000 following the crash.
Mr Hills needed around 50 further hospital visits after being discharged and wore a knee brace for 10 months as he had to learn to walk again.
He can now drive again and said doctors are “amazed” at his recovery.
Mr Hills said doctors have been ‘amazed’ at his recovery
“With an open book pelvic fracture, most people die at the scene,” he said. “If they get to hospital alive, most people die within a day.
“They view me as almost a bit of a miracle really because I’m pretty normal in a lot of ways.
“If you were to look at me… you wouldn’t know I had a near-death crash.”
‘Uninsured drivers cause higher rate of collisions’
Motorists have been urged to make sure their insurance is valid to avoid being caught up in Op Drive Insured.
Paul Farley, law enforcement manager at MIB, said: “Put simply, uninsured drivers are dangerous. They cause a much higher rate of collisions, and they’re often linked to wider road crime, including hit-and-run crashes.
“It’s sadly become an all-too-common experience to hear on the news that yet another person’s life has been cut short after being hit by an illegal motorist.
“We’re working day and night with our police partners to put an end to this.
“We hope Op Drive Insured sends a clear message that no one is above the law and those who choose to drive without insurance will not get away with it.”
UK
Woman’s body found in car boot in east London – as murder investigation launched by two police forces
UK
Police investigating criminal offence after Daily Telegraph columnist ‘dumbfounded’ by social media post probe
Essex Police say they are investigating an alleged criminal offence of inciting racial hatred, after Daily Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson said she was “dumbfounded and upset” when officers knocked on her door last Sunday.
Ms Pearson revealed she was told she was being investigated over a year-old deleted post online.
She said she wasn’t informed which post had been reported, but suggested it could have been related to the 7 October attacks in Israel or pro-Palestine marches.
She claimed the officers told her she was being investigated for a NCHI (a none crime hate incident) an incident involving an act which is perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards persons with a particular characteristic, but is not illegal.
NCHI reports have long been controversial, with many citing free speech concerns, and Ms Pearson’s account of the police visit has led to widespread support from Conservatives and online commentators, including Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.
But an Essex Police spokesperson has told Sky News its investigation was never for an NCHI, and that the matter was always being treated as an investigation into an alleged criminal offence of inciting racial hatred.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Speaking on her Planet Normal podcast on Wednesday, Ms Pearson said she found the visit “chilling”.
“I was dumbfounded, upset, it’s not very nice,” she said. “I was in my dressing gown on the step of the house, these two coppers were there just outside the door.
“There were people gathering for the Remembrance Day parade so there were people watching from the other side of the road.
“Whatever I did or didn’t tweet, if somebody found it offensive, that to me is still not a reason for two policemen to come to my house on a Sunday morning.
“You know, they don’t do that for burglars, do they? We know policing is under-resourced and they are unable to attend often quite serious crimes.
“This was the most extraordinary overreach and state intrusion into my private life and I don’t think I did anything wrong and I think their response was outrageous.”
Read more:
Ex-Tory MP feels ‘enormous guilt’ over Westminster scandal
Farage issues message to his ‘haters’
In a statement, Essex Police said: “Officers attended an address in Essex and invited a woman to come to a voluntary interview.
“They said it related to an investigation into an alleged offence of inciting racial hatred, linked to a post on social media.
“For clarity: a complaint of a possible criminal offence was made to the police and this is why we called; to arrange an interview.
“Everyone was polite and professional throughout the brief conversation.”
They said an officer told Ms Pearson: “It’s gone down as an incident or offence of potentially inciting racial hatred online. That would be the offence.”
Essex Police say they have complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) over what they call “false reporting” regarding the ongoing investigation.
In an interview with The Telegraph published yesterday, Kemi Badenoch said police visiting a journalist over a social media post was “absolutely wrong” and that “we need to look at the laws around non-crime hate incidents”.
“There has been a long-running problem with people not taking free speech seriously,” she said.
She challenged the prime minister to review the laws, saying: “Keir Starmer says he is someone who believes in these things. Now he needs to actually show that he does believe it. All we’ve seen from him is the opposite.”
Ms Badenoch added: “We need to stop this behaviour of people wasting police time on trivial incidents because they don’t like something, as if they’re in a nursery.
“It’s like children reporting each other. And I think that in certain cases, the police do it because they’re afraid that if they don’t do it, they will also be accused of not taking these issues seriously.”
Essex Police said the officers went to the address to invite Ms Pearson to attend a voluntary interview as part of their investigation, which was passed to them by another force.
“The report relates to a social media post which was subsequently removed,” the statement read.
“An investigation is now being carried out under Section 17 of the Public Order Act.”
Essex Police also said they made attempts to contact Ms Pearson before the visit.
Other prominent Conservative voices such as Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Chris Philp have also leapt to Ms Pearson’s defence online, as has X owner Elon Musk, who quoted a post about the incident and said: “This needs to stop.”
Police commentator Graham Wettone told Sky News the police are “duty bound to investigate allegations of crime”.
“They’ve had an allegation of crime made there,” he said. “They will investigate it. If at the end of this they decide that no criminal offence has been committed – and we’re not at that stage yet – then it can still be recorded as a none crime hate incident.”
The police, he said, are duty bound to keep a record of none crime hate incidents.
“Parliament said they want the police to do this, to investigate and record incidents like this. So they are doing exactly what parliament and society asked them to do, and they are getting criticism for doing what people want.”
UK
Sir Keir Starmer vows to defend budget decisions ‘all day long’ as farmers slam ‘disrespectful’ PM
Sir Keir Starmer has said he will defend the decisions made in the budget “all day long” amid anger from farmers over inheritance tax changes.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced last month in her key speech that from April 2026, farms worth more than £1m will face an inheritance tax rate of 20%, rather than the standard 40% applied to other land and property.
The announcement has sparked anger among farmers who argue this will mean higher food prices, lower food production and having to sell off land to pay for the tax.
Sir Keir defended the budget as he gave his first speech as prime minister at the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno, North Wales, where farmers have been holding a tractor protest outside.
Sir Keir admitted: “We’ve taken some extremely tough decisions on tax.”
He said: “I will defend facing up to the harsh light of fiscal reality. I will defend the tough decisions that were necessary to stabilise our economy.
“And I will defend protecting the payslips of working people, fixing the foundations of our economy, and investing in the future of Britain and the future of Wales. Finally, turning the page on austerity once and for all.”
He also said the budget allocation for Wales was a “record figure” – some £21bn for next year – an extra £1.7bn through the Barnett Formula, as he hailed a “path of change” with Labour governments in Wales and Westminster.
And he confirmed a £160m investment zone in Wrexham and Flintshire will be going live in 2025.
‘PM should have addressed the protesters’
Among the hundreds of farmers demonstrating was Gareth Wyn Jones, who told Sky News it was “disrespectful” that the prime minister did not mention farmers in his speech.
He said “so many people have come here to air their frustrations. He (Starmer) had an opportunity to address the crowd. Even if he was booed he should have been man enough to come out and talk to the people”.
He said farmers planned to deliver Sir Keir a letter which begins with “don’t bite the hand that feeds you”.
Farmers’ tractor protest outside the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno, North Wales
Mr Wyn Jones told Sky News the government was “destroying” an industry that was already struggling.
“They’re destroying an industry that’s already on its knees and struggling, absolutely struggling, mentally, emotionally and physically. We need government support not more hindrance so we can produce food to feed the nation.”
He said inheritance tax changes will result in farmers increasing the price of food: “The poorer people in society aren’t going to be able to afford good, healthy, nutritious British food, so we have to push this to government for them to understand that enough is enough, the farmers can’t take any more of what they’re throwing at us.”
Mr Wyn Jones disputed the government’s estimation that only 500 farming estates in the UK will be affected by the inheritance tax changes.
“Look, a lot of farmers in this country are in their 70s and 80s, they haven’t handed their farms down because that’s the way it’s always been, they’ve always known there was never going to be inheritance tax.”
On Friday, Sir Keir addressed farmers’ concerns, saying: “I know some farmers are anxious about the inheritance tax rules that we brought in two weeks ago.
“What I would say about that is, once you add the £1m for the farmland to the £1m that is exempt for your spouse, for most couples with a farm wanting to hand on to their children, it’s £3m before anybody pays a penny in inheritance tax.”
Read more:
Ex-Labour adviser suggests doing to farms ‘what Thatcher did to coal mines’
Farmers ‘could block ports and disrupt food supply’
Welsh farmer Gareth Wyn Jones
Ministers said the move will not affect small farms and is aimed at targeting wealthy landowners who buy up farmland to avoid paying inheritance tax.
But analysis this week said a typical family farm would have to put 159% of annual profits into paying the new inheritance tax every year for a decade and could have to sell 20% of their land.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The Country and Land Business Association (CLA), which represents owners of rural land, property and businesses in England and Wales, found a typical 200-acre farm owned by one person with an expected profit of £27,300 would face a £435,000 inheritance tax bill.
The plan says families can spread the inheritance tax payments over 10 years, but the CLA found this would require an average farm to allocate 159% of its profits each year for a decade.
To pay that, successors could be forced to sell 20% of their land, the analysis found.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports7 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Environment1 year agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway