Biker son left injured as car driver sped away

Rotherham rider James Parkin, aged 19, careered off the road after being hit by a small silver car on a roundabout near Armthorpe, Don-caster.

The white Suzuki motorcycle slammed into a kerb and the crash ripped a hole in his left leg. He spent days in Doncaster Royal Infirmary where surgeons first thought they may have to use skin grafts.

He has since been allowed home, where he is recovering, and no skin grafts were needed.

The young woman car driver was seen to “have a look of horror” on her face before driving away after the smash on the A630 West Moor Link Road.

But police have refused to place a witness appeal board at the site of the smash, which occurred at 4.50pm on Tuesday, July 24.

James’ furious dad David today said he had made numerous appeals to police to erect the appeal board - but had been told it was policy only to do so for fatal or very serious crashes.

“I am absolutely fuming,” David said. “This was a serious crash which could easily have killed James. As it is, he has been badly hurt and his leg is a right mess. If a hit and run isn’t serious enough for witness boards to be put out, then what is. We may have missed a very good chance to catch the woman driver who did this.

“We think she probably panicked and drove off, but she still committed a crime by failing to stop.”

A police spokesman said: “It is a bit of a grey area regarding accident witness boards and is up to the discretion of the officers involved.

“There are no hard and fast rules on it and it depends on the crash.

“We obviously sympathise with Mr Parkin, but in this case the officers must not have throught it appropriate to erect a board. It may be that they are working on other leads.”