A three-year-old boy got banged up pretty bad after a car towing a caravan smacked into him, thanks to a group of travelers who thought it was cool to set up camp illegally on a school playing field. The whole thing went down at The Blandford School, a secondary school in Blandford Forum, Dorset, yesterday afternoon. Apparently, about ten caravans rolled in like they owned the place. The poor kiddo got hit when one of the caravans was being disconnected from a car. He had to be airlifted to the hospital and is still in pretty rough shape but stable, thank goodness.
The accident happened around 4:30 pm, right on the school field. The cops said it was a white Seat Leon car towing the caravan that crashed into the little guy. Locals mentioned it happened while they were unhooking one of the caravans. A cordon was set up to give the emergency services space to do their thing and check out the scene.
Some 19-year-old dude got cuffed for driving offenses and causing serious harm on purpose. The travelers didn’t waste any time and bailed on the school site less than a day after they arrived. The Blandford School was relieved to see them go and said they could finally have a “normal” school day again.
Sergeant Mike Burt from Dorset Police’s Serious Collision Investigation Team shared, “Our hearts go out to the little one who got hurt and his fam during this tough time.” They’re still looking into what went down and are asking for any witnesses or anyone with dashcam footage to reach out. They get that an incident like this involving a kid can shake up the community, so they’re keeping an eye out in the area to keep everyone safe.
The school sent out a message on Thursday night hinting at an “incident” without giving too many deets. Headteacher Sally Wilson told parents about it, saying, “Some of you may have heard there was an incident on our turf. Because of that, the leisure center entrance is closed tomorrow, and the cops will be around all night and tomorrow.” They also mentioned that the gates next to block one would be off-limits and no car drop-offs were allowed. Lessons were still on, though, business as usual.
Blandford Leisure Center, which is right next to the field, apologized to their customers for the commotion caused by the emergency on the school grounds.
The whole situation was a mess, to say the least. Not really sure why this matters, but it seems like people can’t just park their caravans wherever they please. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like common sense should kick in at some point. Let’s hope the little guy makes a speedy recovery and that something like this doesn’t happen again.
