Hit and run: new witness appeal (From Ealing Times)

Hit and run: new witness appeal

7:00am Saturday 17th November 2007 in

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NEW information about a hit-and-run that has left a little girl hospitalised has been released by the police.

Ealing police have released details of potential witnesses they believe were near the zebra crossing in North Acton Lane, where five-year-old Rachel Popoola was knocked down on Saturday, October 27.

Officers are keen to speak to two men, believed to be Mexican, and a motorcyclist who stopped straight after the incident, as well as an ambulance driver who was seen to call 999 by Rachel's mother, Donna.

Rachel was on her way to the park with her 17-year-old brother, Maridanna, when she was hit by a dark-coloured van, thought to be purple, that was driven by a white man, at around 4pm.

'He must be having nightmares about leaving my little girl lying in the road while he drove off.'

Donna Popoola

This dramatic image shows just a few of the injuries suffered by the Castlebar special school student, who had an eight-hour operation to put plates put in her face, have her left femur - which had been snapped in half - wired together and her burst tongue sewn up.

The five-year-old, who also suffers from diabetes, has been moved from Great Ormond Street Hospital in central London to Ealing Hospital.

Donna, 44, who has stayed with her daughter every night since the incident, said: "She is a little fighter and she is doing really well.

"She can talk now but she still can't walk at the moment, and we have to wait three months until her leg is out of plaster.

"The greatest thing is that my baby's still alive. I love her more today then I did before, but I am still afraid to leave her in case something happens."

Donna also told the Ealing Times that she believed the driver must have a guilty conscience, and urged him to come forward to police.

She said: "Somebody must have seen something suspicious, as the front light of the van was smashed, so someone close to the driver knows he did it.

"He must be having nightmares about leaving my little girl lying in the road while he drove off and I know it's something he will never forget.

"I want these people to imagine this family was their own and see how they would feel about everything we have had to go through."

Anyone with information can contact the Collision Investigation Unit at Alperton by calling 0208 998 5319, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.