Mum wants apology after toddler smashed her teeth in pothole fall

BY CALUM FRASER
calum@slpmedia.co.uk

A distraught mother whose  daughter “smashed her face open” after falling over a pothole is asking for town hall chiefs to apologise.

Amy Messenger, from Lee, was walking her three-year-old daughter Poppy Evans to nursery in Lewisham when she tripped on a pothole. Ms Messenger said: “She smashed her face open, broke her front teeth, and her lip was swollen like a golf ball.

“I was absolutely distraught, there was a lot of blood coming from her face and she was screaming.

“I tried my best to stop the blood. It was horrible.”

The 22-year-old mother believes the hole in the pavement on Burnt Ash Hill in Lee was made by a large wooden fence post that had been uprooted.

She rushed Poppy to the dentist and then to a doctor who said Poppy had concussion.

“She’s suffered so much because of this,” Ms Messenger said. “It’s made her more nervous, especially when it comes to going outside. She’s even had nightmares about it.”

Ms Messenger contacted Lewisham council for an apology or compensation and she claims she was told by a member of the highway team that she was entitled to this. She said: “It is not about the money, it’s the principle. But the money could have been used for her future.

“I want to make sure that this doesn’t happen to another family.”

A spokeswoman for Lewisham council said: “It’s always regrettable when someone suffers injury due to an accident on the highway.

“We are unable to comment further at this time as Ms Messenger has appointed solicitors to act on her behalf.”