Injured horse rider Amanda Gray hits out at ‘idiot drivers’ after breaking her arm in riding accident with lorry in Boyden Gate
Published: 00:01, 21 September 2013
A woman who broke her arm falling off her horse has hit out at the “idiot driver” she holds responsible.
Amanda Gray was riding her Arab mare Sharna along the country lanes near her home in Boyden Gate.
She was with two other riders when a tipper truck spooked the horses and she was thrown from hers.
The driver failed even to get out of his cab, though he did offer to call an ambulance before driving on.
Mrs Gray said: “We were riding up the hill at Highstead towards Herne Bay and at the top we saw that a big lorry had stopped. We thought it was going to wait for us so we continued on but then it came crawling down.
“It had its airbrakes on, which spooked the horse in front of me, which then spooked my horse. Next thing I was lying on the road.”
Mrs Gray’s right forearm was broken and the wrist dislocated. She was taken to Kent and Canterbury Hospital and later transferred to Margate for an operation.
But the 47-year-old says she has been left most upset not by the physical injuries, but by the thoughtlessness of the driver.
Mrs Gray, who has owned Sharna for two years and has another five horses at her farm in Boyden Gate, said: “He didn’t even get out his cab. He just asked if I needed an ambulance. Luckily I had two friends who were able to help me.”
Before the accident, Mrs Gray used to ride along the country lanes of Boyden Gate and Marshside every day.
She said: “The roads are 30mph and there are horse warning signs for three miles.
“They’re very busy with horses. And yet you get idiot drivers hurtling this way and that.
"We get a lot of children riding horses here. I just want to say to these drivers: Please stop. Please slow. Horses don’t understand.”
Mrs Gray contacted the police to report the driver, who she described as aged in his mid 20s, with strawberry-blond, wavy hair.
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Gazette reporter