AN ELDERLY motorist who knocked down a schoolgirl on a pedestrian crossing, left the scene after checking on her before police arrived, because he felt he was not needed.

The teenager waited for the traffic lights to turn to red before she stepped on to the Wigton Road crossing - but in a split second she was knocked to the ground by the pensioner’s car, the city’s magistrates’ court heard.

Thomas McGlade, 74, admitted driving without due care and attention and failing to report the accident.

Diane Jackson, prosecuting, said the girl had immediately gone to the crossing after getting off her school bus on her way home on January 27.

“I always look to see if the lights have changed,” she later told police.

When that had happened, she stepped on to the crossing, said the prosecutor.

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“But within a split second I was on the floor,” she said.

The collision left her with an injured ankle. The girl said: “I didn’t see the car. I was in so much shock it took me a while to gather my thoughts.”

She recalled the driver getting out of his car, talking, and then leaving in his car.

A passing ambulance also stopped, and the paramedics carried the girl into her home nearby. McGlade later told police that he had stopped after realising he had hit somebody but then left because she seemed okay.

“He said he felt he wasn’t needed and that his wife was unwell,” added Mrs Jackson.

The defendant’s lawyer John Smith told the court that McGlade had no previous convictions and being before the court was a source of embarrassment.

He said McGlade, from the access road to Red Hall Farm, Wigton, had sensibly stopped at the scene and spoken to the victim, who assured him she was okay.

“He didn’t provide his details because he didn’t realised it was required,” added the lawyer.

District Judge John Temperley imposed a £150 fine for each offence and imposed eight points on McGlade’s licence.

He ordered that the pensioner should pay the girl £100 compensation.