I'm so lucky to be alive after 'hit and run' incident

POLICE RELEASE IMAGES OF TWO PEOPLE THEY WANT TO SPEAK TO

-  WILLIAM TELFORD

FORMER Plymouth Herald editor Alan Qualtrough says he is lucky to be alive after being knocked off his bike in a hit-and-run. The 74-year-old is now recovering at home after sustaining serious injuries which needed hospital treatment and says his assailants must be caught before they hurt someone else.

Police are investigating after a moped carrying two people collided with Mr Qualtrough's bicycle in Mount Gould and sped off leaving him lying in the road. He has fractured ribs, cuts to his left arm and knees and severe swelling around his left side and back caused by internal bleeding to his kidney.

He says he was sent crashing to the pavement and only his helmet saved him from sustaining a life-threatening head wound. After two days in Derriford Hospital he's been sent home but is still in pain and faces weeks of rest before his injuries are healed. "In one sense I'm unlucky, but in another I'm very lucky to have survived," he told The Herald. "I could have fractured my skull. The injuries to my kidney are life-threatening, I've got to rest now. I'm not through this yet."

Police are treating the incident which happened at about 9.50am on Monday, September 4, on Mount Gould Road - as an assault and are trying to identify the moped rider and his passenger.