WHILE driving to work on Tuesday, February 24, at approximately 7.45am along Cromwell Avenue, I witnessed a swan being hit by a car.

It was a horrific thing to see and I can only imagine what pain the poor swan was in.

These two beautiful birds were flying through the sky when unfortunately the swan behind the first swooped down.

For some reason, for which I will never understand, the car that the swan was heading for made no attempt to slow down and proceeded to run over the swan.

Worse the driver of the car (a woman I am saddened to say) just carried on and didn’t stop to assist.

I was driving in the opposite direction and was right across from where the accident took place and screamed out loud. I instinctively stopped, as did other motorists, and got out to check on the swan.

It was clearly hurt (amazingly not dead) and looked shell-shocked by what had just happened.

Myself and another woman tried to call the RSPCA but were consistently met with a recorded message ‘voicemail was full, so you cannot currently leave a message’.

Two chaps also came across to assist and contacted the police to report the incident and the other man kindly helped the swan to the grass verge to ensure it wouldn’t be hit again.

As luck would have it, a vehicle pulled over and two personnel wearing Birds of Prey emblems on their clothing got out.

They called the swan expert within the RSPCA (they had his direct number) and offered to wait with the swan until he arrived to rescue it.

They had determined by this time that the swan’s leg had been badly hurt.

If anyone managed to get the woman’s number plate, please do report it to the police and I would urge all drivers using this area on a daily basis to be more vigilant and keep a watchful eye for swans making swooping flights.

Finally, thank you to all those people who stopped to assist.

I would be delighted to receive an update (hopefully positive) about the swan’s condition via the Warrington Guardian’s letters page.

ANN O’NEILL
Great Sankey