Ref.10299SIX shoppers were mown down by a car on Monday afternoon after it careered onto the pavement in Marlborough High Street.

Miraculously, although all six were injured, no one was seriously hurt and five were allowed out of hospital the same night.

Police are still questioning the woman driver from Mildenhall who was at the wheel of the Suzuki Grand Vitara that ploughed onto the pavement outside Smith's greengrocers before smashing into steel pillars outside Ailesbury Court.

Four of the victims were pensioners from Devon on their way by coach to the Warner Hotel at Littlecote House, near Hungerford, for a week's dancing holiday. They had stopped in Marlborough for refreshments.

One of the pensioners, in his early 70s, was detained with an ankle injury that required surgery.

A fleet of ambulances had to be summoned and passers-by comforted the injured as the first team of paramedics took care of one of the pensioners who it was feared was badly injured.

The elderly woman did not move during the 20 minutes she was lying on the pavement outside Smith's.

Meanwhile, the town hall custodian Allan Brown, greengrocer Gerald Smith and Marlborough Rugby Club chairman Mark Gibson directed the traffic around the scene, leaving police officers to deal with the casualties.

The Suzuki driver, who is in her 50s, remained in her car, shocked but otherwise unhurt, until led to a police car.

She was breathalysed and found to be clear, but faces a possible allegation of dangerous driving, police later confirmed.

PC Richard Oakman, who is leading the investigation, said yesterday that they were still trying to establish why the Suzuki mounted the pavement after passing over the zebra crossing as it headed into the High Street from New Road shortly after 1.30pm on Monday.

The car snapped off a metre high, cast iron traffic bollard before coming to rest against the steel pillars outside Ailesbury Court.

One of the luckiest victims was mother-of-four Dawn Stagg, 33, from South View Place, Marlborough.

She was left lying in agony on the pavement a couple of yards in front of the Suzuki.

Mrs Stagg said the car struck her from behind and she could recall being thrown in the air onto the bonnet and striking the windscreen before being hurled forward.

She said: "As I hit the floor I could see the car still coming for me so despite the pain I rolled over and over to get away from it."

Luckily, the Suzuki was brought to a halt by the steel pillars outside the former hotel. Mrs Stagg said: "If the pillars had not been there I am convinced the car would have driven over me."

She was taken to Swindon's Great Western Hospital where X-rays revealed she had suffered a chipped vertebrae as well as severe bruising and abrasions on both arms.

Mrs Stagg is often accompanied by her youngest child, Charley-Jo, three. Fortunately she was at nursery school on Monday.

Grandmother Charlene Twisk missed being knocked down by a hair's breadth.

Mrs Twisk, who lives in Savernake Forest, had been selecting fruit and vegetables from the display outside Smith's when she felt the car brush behind her. She said: "It would have hit me if I had not been bending forward to pick up some tomatoes."

She added: "The engine was revving like mad and it was still going like hell when it hit the pillar.

"If anyone had been actually been between the pillar and the car it would have been a different outcome."

PC Oakman agreed. "It is amazing that no one was killed," he said.

He would like to speak to any witnesses who saw the accident or the car as it left the road.

PC Oakman can be contacted at Marlborough Police Station on (01672) 512311.