Woman's nerves shot after hit and run

SCARED: Charlotte Morgan was "too afraid" to tell her mother after she was toppled from her trike by a car.

A Masterton mother is fuming her intellectually and physically challenged daughter was left injured and "too afraid to tell" after a reversing driver toppled the woman from her adult trike and fled.

Brenda Morgan said her daughter Charlotte, 24, who has Angelman Syndrome, had been heading home after finishing volunteer work at Montessori school about 3pm Monday a week ago.

Mrs Morgan was uncertain of the time or location of the incident but believes a car reversing from a driveway on Dixon St, or a nearby street, had struck her daughter, knocking her from her trike, which was custom-made in Levin and costs from $3000 to $5000 new.

"She didn't say anything to us that day because the woman who backed into her had apparently told her she needed to look where she was going and be more careful. Even though under law, it's the driver's responsibility to watch out."

Charlotte had set off the next day for the youth centre on Chapel St when her trike failed and her mother received an emergency text from her daughter. Her mum collected her and the broken cycle, and the pair were told at the repair shop a car had likely struck the three-wheeler.

"It was then I noticed Charlotte was walking with a limp. I asked her if she had been hit by a car and she said a lady had backed into her. She was too afraid to tell because she thought she would get in trouble after the woman growled [at] her," Mrs Morgan said.

"And it's not the first time it's happened."

Mrs Morgan said a young driver had reversed into her daughter as she rode her trike about a year ago, although she had then escaped injury.

The latest collision has left Charlotte with a badly strained ankle and robbed her of the confidence to get back on her trike.

She was wearing a moon boot and using crutches, Mrs Morgan said, and was unable to volunteer at the Montessori School until her sprained ankle had mended.

Mrs Morgan was running her daughter to youth centre dates and had taken her to visit the school "to keep the momentum going for her there".

"But she's not keen to get back on her trike, which is a really big one for us. That trike is her independence. She can't walk very far but she can pedal like the clappers and we're just hoping like mad she will get her nerve back again," she said.

"The police were told but there's no point looking for the driver. Apparently, Charlotte's not the first on an adult trike to be knocked over in Masterton in the past few weeks. People have to take more notice and take care, be aware, whenever they're behind the wheel."