AN Aberystwyth mother has told of how she thought she and her nine-year-old son were about to die when a car came crashing through bollards into a pedestrian area outside Morrisons supermarket.

Ilona Barnes, her husband Dmitry and her autistic nine-year-old son were outside the supermarket in May when a red Peugeot 108 driven by 81-year-old Robert Allan Pearson of Llanilar careered at high speed towards them.

Pearson pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention last week, got four points on his licence and a £100 fine but was not banned from driving.

Describing the incident as “horrible” and “so scary” Ilona said Pearson’s sentence was “simply not enough” and that he should “never be allowed to drive again”.

“It all happened so quickly, but we were lucky to survive,” Ilona told the Cambrian News.

“I was looking in my bag for a letter and I looked up to see a car heading towards me. I thought ‘I’m going to die now’. When I was on the floor after the car hit my side, my first thought was that my son had been killed when I heard the sound of a trolley being smashed into. I’ll never forget that feeling.”

Dmitry suffered a badly broken ankle in the incident which required extensive surgery to screw the bones back in place.

Ilona suffered pain to her left abdomen and her son was left with bruising to his right knee and right side of his body.

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