Court action launched against motorist who hit Redbourn schoolgirl

Molly Goodchild, now 14, suffered a traumatic brain injury in the accident which happened opposite her home in Harpenden Lane, Redbourn, in December 2014.

She has been left in a wheelchair and continues to suffer left-sided weakness, cognitive difficulties, impaired vision and problems with balance and coordination.

Lawyers acting for Molly and her family are now suing the driver and motor insurers to cover the costs of the care and assistance she will need in the future.

According to a writ issued at the High Court, Molly, a pupil at Roundwood Park School in Harpenden, was walking with two friends to a bus stop opposite her home when the accident occurred.

One of her friends got on the bus and the other two proceeded to cross back over the road to Molly’s house.

But, according to the writ, as Molly ‘crossed the road behind the stationary bus and had almost reached the kerb on the other side of the road’, she was hit by a car.

It goes on to say that she was ‘flung some distance, landing in the bushes just outside the family home’.

Molly was taken by air ambulance to the Royal London Hospital with ‘a mass of major injuries’, including a head injury, pelvic fracture and leg fracture.

She was transferred to the paediatric intensive care unit at Great Ormond Street Hospital the same evening.

Months of treatment and rehabilitation followed before she returned home in July last year.

The defence to the claim was not available from the court and the contents of the writ have yet to be tested in evidence before a judge.

Molly has appeared in a CBBC documentary aired on November 24 last year entitled My Life: Knocked Back, telling the story of how she is trying to recover from the accident.

In addition, staff and pupils at both Roundwood Park and her previous school, Redbourn Junior, have held fundraising activities for Great Ormond Street Hospital following Molly’s accident.