THIS WEEK IN 1984: Little Lynsey-Ann in narrow escape with hit and run drivers
A new-born baby girl had a lucky escape during a hit-and-run crash which left a trail of damage outside homes in Penhale Road, Fratton.
Little Lynsey-Ann Norman was sleeping in a carry cot in the bay window of her home when a stolen Ford Capri careered into residents’ cars parked outside the house, missing the window by just a few feet.
Her father, Barry Norman said: ‘We only have a very small forecourt and the bay window is about five-feet away from the kerb.
‘If the cars had not been parked outside the Capri would have come right through the front of our house.
‘All we heard was a big skid and an awful grating noise.
By the time we got outside, three youngsters from the Capri were running away down the street.’
Three cars belonging to residents of the road, including Mr Norman’s, were severely damaged in the incident, which police were treating as a hit-and-run.
Angry residents, who claimed Penhale Road at its junction with Guildford Road had always been an accident black spot, urged the city council to put up warning signs to help slow down traffic before someone was killed.