Black Country family 'lucky to walk away' after van crashes on bridge in police chase

Martin Brooker said he had been dealing with a number of bruises and minor injuries following the incident, which happened on the evening of Sunday, September 20 on Central Drive in Coseley.

Mr Brooker said he and his family had been returning from a day out and had been crossing the Wallbrook Canal Bridge over the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) network when he described seeing a van being driven out of control.

He said: “Myself, my wife Jade, my son James, my sister-in-law Bethany and her daughter were out having a day out because the weather was nice and we decided to take James along the cut to go fishing for a few hours.

“We were coming back and we were walking over the bridge and, because it’s a narrow path, I told everyone to walk single file, and as we were doing that, we heard sirens and saw the van being chased by the police.

“It was completely out of control and was mounting the pavement and it then started coming at us sideways, so my wife grabbed my son and jumped into the middle of the road and I’ve grabbed the other two and sheltered them as the van came around, bounced off the wall and hit me.

“I bounced into the middle of the road, but got back up and checked on Bethany and her daughter, then run to try and find my wife and son as I thought they were under the van, but luckily they came around the back.”

Mr Brooker said that, in the aftermath, the police officers had initially detained him, thinking he was the driver of the van, but had relented after his wife explained what they had been doing and his son shouted out that the driver was fleeing the scene.

He said that he had seen two passengers in the van being arrested and said that they had all been interviewed at the scene by police.

He said that while he had a few bruises and cuts and scratches, he’d got away reasonably well from the incident physically, but said the family was suffering mentally in the aftermath.

He said: “My wife and son are struggling as my son is petrified to leave the house and my wife has left the house once since and ended up having a panic attack.

“Bethany and her daughter live in Pendeford and we haven’t seen them since it happened, but I know that she’s also been struggling and has been to the doctors.

“It will take one day at a time to get over this, but we are just very lucky and grateful to have walked away with our lives after this.”

A spokeswoman for West Midlands Police said: “A van failed to stop for officers before hitting a wall on Central Drive. The occupants then fled the scene.

“A 23-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of wounding

“He has been bailed pending further enquiries.

“Anyone with any information is asked to call 101 quoting 20/407041/26.”

A spokesman for West Midlands Ambulance Service said: “We were called to reports of a van that had crashed into a bridge on Central Drive at 7pm on Sunday, four ambulances, a paramedic officer and a MERIT trauma doctor with a critical care paramedic attended the scene.

“There were four patients in total. Two men were treated for potentially serious injuries before being taken to New Cross Hospital and Russell’s Hall Hospital.

“A further man and woman were assessed and discharged at the scene.”