Dianne Hopkins, 77, struck the young girl and the family’s dog (Picture: Cavendish Press)
A grandmother has been handed a ban from driving after she mowed down a nine-year-old girl in a hit-and-run.
Dianne Hopkins, 77, ran a red light in her Vauxhall Corsa on Birchfield Road in Widnes, Cheshire, in November last year.
The young girl was walking with her mother and pet dog, and suffered a fractured eye socket and multiple cuts and bruises.
The family dog was also struck by the car, but was unharmed.
When tracked down, Hopkins claimed she knew nothing of the crash, but later pleaded guilty to failing to stop after an accident and driving without due care and attention at Warrington Magistrates’ Court.
She was disqualified from driving for 12 months, fined £200 and ordered to pay £200 in costs and victim surcharge.
The accident happened on Birchfield Road, Cheshire (Picture: Google Maps)
She faced up to six months in jail under sentencing guidelines.
When told about the ban, Hopkins pleaded: ‘Oh, please don’t. Where I live there are no shops. The nearest shop is over a mile away.’
Prosecutor Kate Johnson said: ‘The defendant collided with the dog which had gone behind the complainant and then the child.
‘The child suffered some injuries which were a fractured eye socket which took eight weeks to heal. There was also a cut to the child’s nose.
‘Police carried out investigations through CCTV and ANPR which led them to the defendant as being the registered keeper of the vehicle and a notice of intended prosecution was sent to the defendant’s home address.’
The prosecutor said Hopkins did not recollect colliding with a child or a dog.
Hopkins, who represented herself, said: ‘The first I heard of the accident is when the police came. I saw the footage and straight away realised it was my car going around the roundabout.
‘I was on my way to pick my son up from the station. I do it every night of the week around the same time. I take him to the station at 8.30 every morning during the week.’
‘I have lived in that area all my life so I know it very well. I cannot believe what happened. There was no damage to my car, no mark at all, nothing.. I know I did it, but I cannot understand how I did not stop at the red light.
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‘I do not think I have ever gone through a red light in my life. If I had known about it, I would have stopped. I would not have carried on driving. In fact I would have went down that road and came home that way past the roundabout and down to where I live.’
Hopkins said she drives well over ‘100 miles per week’, running her son and ‘shopping for a neighbour’.
She added: ‘I have to say until this happened, I loved driving. It was a real pleasure for me. I did not start driving until 25 or 30 years because when I was younger, I had my children. I could not afford a car. What else I can say. I am sorry.’
In sentencing Justice of the Peace Karen Earnest told Hopkins: ‘Normally in offences of this nature, we would say it has crossed into what we call the community threshold, but we won’t be looking to ask the probation service to work with you.
‘We do not feel that there is anything that the probation service can do with you that you have not done yourself. We are not going to send you into the community digging holes in the ground.
‘What we have done is take the option to increase the fine to a slightly higher fine. Unfortunately, there are consequences to offences like this and disqualification is one of them. Do not drive while disqualified, that carries a custodial sentence.’
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