Police appeal after fatal crash (From The Advertiser Series)

Police appeal after fatal crash

9:00am Friday 26th February 2010

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POLICE investigating a fatal road accident are appealing for help from taxi drivers.

Pamela Nancy Shields, of Sherburn Village, died after her electric wheelchair was hit by a car.

The crash happened as Mrs Shields was travelling along the unlit B1283 towards her home at 12.20am last Sunday.

The 55-year-old motherof- five was half a mile east of the junction with the A181 at West Sherburn.

She had been in Durham celebrating her birthday, with fiancee David Mollon.

Mrs Shields was struck from behind by a Fiat Brava. The driver, a 21- year-old man also from Sherburn Village, was unhurt.

She suffered multiple injuries and was certified dead shortly after arrival at the University Hospital of North Durham.

Police say Mrs Shields often travelled the route between her home and Durham in her wheelchair and appealed to anyone who saw her on the road that night, especially taxi drivers who may be familiar with her using that stretch of road, to contact them.

Anyone with information is asked to call Durham Police’s collision investigation unit on 0191-375-2159.

The couple had been to the Last Orders pub in Gilesgate.

“But they missed the last bus to her home in Park House Gardens, and decided to make the two-and-ahalf mile journey under their own steam.

Mr Mollon, 57, of Jubilee Crescent, Sherburn Hill, said: “Pam was on the opposite side of the road with the traffic behind her and I kept telling her to cross over but she didn’t. She thought the cars would see her and overtake.

“I heard a car coming and it whacked her. It must have knocked her for 50 yards down the road and I knew straight away that she was dead. There was no way she could not be. At least she will not have suffered.”

Mrs Shields had used a wheelchair since a severe stroke in her twenties left her paralysed on her left side, deaf in one ear and blind in one eye.

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