‘Find hit and run driver’, pleads wife of injured Forest Gate teacher

Nick Bowers-Broadbent, a victim of a hit-and-run, appeals for the driver who fled to come forward. Picture: Isabel Infantes

by Melissa York, Reporter Wednesday, October 31, 2012
5:09 PM

The wife of a teacher in Forest Gate and TV choirmaster who was injured in a hit and run is appealing for witnesses to bring the driver to justice.

Nick Bowers-Broadbent, 43, a music teacher at St Bonaventure’s School, was cycling from Islington to Hackney when he was hit by a silver Ford Focus and flung into the air on the junction of Brooksby’s Walk and Homerton High Street at around 11.30pm on Sunday, October 14.

The choirmaster, who took gospel choir Revelation to the semi-finals of BBC’s Last Choir Standing, was taken to Homerton Hospital where staff treated two breakages in his right leg and fractured ribs.

The keen cyclist from Wanstead underwent surgery on his leg last Monday and doctors estimate it will take him six to eight weeks to recover.

His wife, Jackie Bowers-Broadbent, 42, said the incident had been incredibly traumatic for her and their three children, aged two, six and nine.

She said: “Nobody wants to receive a phone call like that at midnight. The worst things run through your mind. It will stay with me for ever and I would not want to go through that again.”

She admitted she had gone to “great lengths” not to let their children know until they had got back from school the following day because she did not want them to be upset at school.

She said: “My six-year-old cried and keeps asking about his dad. His dad was teaching him how to play the drums and he was supposed to perform at an event, but he now has to put these plans on hold.

“Nick used to take my two-year-old to nursery in a buggy attached to his bike, and my son keeps staring at it.

“He’s a very loving and caring father and I think this is going to be extremely difficult for him as he will understand the impact of this accident on the children.

She added: “I would like to think the person who has done this has a conscience. I would appeal to them to go into a police station and say they did this.

“I would like to think they have a family and understand what we are going through.”

A spokesman from Hackney Police said: “The car was being driven by a black male aged 18 to 19, of a tall slim build.” The car was found abandoned in Overbury Street, Homerton the following day.

Anyone with information is urged to call police information number 101.