By Steve White, Adam Aspinall Comments Cardiff hit-and-run horror: White van maniac aims at mums and kids... then smashes into them

Many witnesses were shaking as they described the three-mile trail of carnage that left a woman dead and 11 other people injured

 

Shocked witnesses wept today as they told how pedestrians were deliberately mown down when a van driver went berserk.
Many were still shaking as they described the three-mile trail of carnage that left a woman of 32 dead and 11 other people – including seven children – in hospital, some with serious injuries.
They were stunned as the driver deliberately ploughed into innocent pedestrians in five separate incidents as it sped through Cardiff’s crowded streets.
A man of 31 was being held on suspicion of murder last night as it was revealed that the horrific rampage in the city’s Ely and Leckwith areas followed a forecourt bust-up at an Asda petrol station at around 3.30pm.
A white van suddenly screeched off, tyres smoking, and began mounting the pavement, driving at terrified pedestrians and children on their way home from school.
Two women were said to have been dragged 250 yards after being hit.
It was also claimed that after smashing into other victims, the driver stopped, then reversed over them.
Gail Harford, 40, said: “He was backing up over them again – it’s too horrendous for words.”
Shopkeeper Phil Jones added: “The van aimed straight at a mum and two children walking on the pavement and mowed them down.”
Three of the injured were named as mum Annie Lewis, 22 and her daughter Amelia-May, two.
Witnesses said Annie and partner Adam, 23, were pushing Amelia-May in her pram when they were “deliberately” targeted after the van swerved across four lanes.
Amelia-May was left covered in blood from facial injuries which were not thought to be life threatening.

Student Annie, who suffered a broken leg, was put in one of the fleet of ambulances at the scene.
Retail worker Adam was shocked but uninjured and travelled to hospital with them.
His grandmother Maureen Lewis, 80, said: “It was total mayhem out there – the driver of the white van was driving fast and furious at anyone in his path.
Adam, Annie and Amelia were hit by the white Transit further down the road.
“I just didn’t know what the hell was going on. The driver was just running people down at random.”
Fighting back tears she added: “Thank God Annie and Amelia-May weren’t killed.”
A fleet of ambulances struggled to keep up with the stream of casualties.
And the A&E department at the University Hospital of Wales had to be closed to anyone not involved in the incident.
Crashes were reported at a number of locations, including Grand Avenue in Ely, Cowbridge Road West, and Leckwith Retail Park.
The condition of the injured was not known late last night. Ely sub-postmaster Shady Taha, 29, had just served two girls and a young woman moments before the collision in Grand Avenue.
He said the girls aged about 10 and the woman, in her mid-20s, had been browsing birthday cards in his store before stepping out on to the pavement
He said: “All of a sudden I heard a bang. I looked out and one girl was on the floor and the other girl was screaming. I heard a van roar off but I did not see it.”
Lynda Paterson, who lives on Cowbridge Road West, said the scene outside her house was chaotic.

 

She added: “I was going to pick my children up from school and I could see there were police everywhere and someone was lying on the pavement.
"The officers were running back and forth along the road and I now know there was a child who had been hit.”
Police were also called to Crossways Road and Sloper Road. Ely Fire Station was sealed off by a team of forensic officers.
Leckwith Retail Park, next to Cardiff City’s football ground, was also temporarily closed.
The altercation that is believed to have sparked the rampage was witnessed by Dr Elizabeth Haywood – wife of Labour politician Peter Hain.
She said: “I was filling up with petrol and I saw a taxi driver going to help another guy who had been hit on the head with a steering wheel immobiliser. I think he got hit as well.
“The guy who was hitting them walked over to his white van which was parked at the petrol pumps.
"I checked his registration number and meanwhile the taxi driver ahead of me at the pump got back into his car shaken up and drove off.
“Just as I was making the phonecall to the emergency services the white van that had been sitting there suddenly sped off, screeching and with smoke coming from the tyres.
"The next thing I heard was a scream and a thump.
There was a woman who was in front of his van who was hitting the front of his bonnet because he had hit her. She then went under the wheels of his van.
“So we were all screaming ‘back-up, back-up’. There were a lot of people there. So he did back up and then he ran over her again.
“This other woman came up to the van to get him to stop and he ran over her as well and he dragged them both to the corner of the roundabout and out into the road which leads back on to the main road and he hit another man coming the other way who opened his car door to stop him.