Family plea after mum hit by car

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The daughter of a Belfast pensioner left for dead by a hit-and-run driver has described her family's devastation.

Anne McQuitty, 67, was struck by a car which mounted the pavement near the junction of Conway Street and the Shankill Road early on Sunday.

She underwent emergency surgery for a shattered arm and also sustained a broken ankle and cuts and bruises.

Her daughter, Audrey, appealed for witnesses to come forward and called on the driver to give himself up.

"It is so hard and you are trying not to break down in front of her. He has took years off her life," she told the BBC's Nolan Show.

"It will take her so long to recover from it. How would he feel if it was his mother. Has he got a conscience, has he got a heart?"

The acccident happened after Mrs McQuitty, who suffers from osteoporosis, was on her way home to Argyle Street after visiting a friend.

Anne McQuitty pictured before the accident"The driver came in at a slant and hit my mother. As soon as he hit my mother he turned his car lights off and he proceeded up the Shankill," she said.

She said her mother, who suffers from osteoporosis, would have to undergo months of rehabilitation for her physical injuries. However, the mental anguish is already evident.

"It is devastating. She doesn't even know what day it is," said Audrey.

"I haven't slept since that happened to my mother. Her coat is ripped to shreds and the very tyre marks are on my mother's coat."

She said that another motorist followed the driver - said to be a man in his 50s - and informed him of what he had done. He was gone by the time police arrived.

Making a direct appeal to the person responsible, Audrey said: "Go and do the right thing; hand yourself in."

Audrey also urged anyone who saw the accident to tell the police.

"There is a bar across the road and the people out of that bar came out to help my mother," she said.

"There were people outside that bar, I know people have seen things. They don't have to give their names, they just have to ring the police."