A teenage girl had her skin ripped off and was left with bits of tyre stuck in her leg in a hit and run.
Lois Fleming was getting off a bus at Newmachar as she returned from a friend’s on the first day of her school holidays.
But just seconds after stepping off the Stagecoach 35, at around 11pm on Monday, she was struck by a car which did not stop.
According to witnesses, the Audi stopped further along the A947 Aberdeen to Banff road and two men got out and checked the vehicle before driving off.
Two bus passengers stayed with 15-year-old Lois until an ambulance arrived and took her to the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital.
Her mum Lyndsay was called by one of the passengers and quickly drove down to the scene, panicking about what she would find.
She said: “I was fearing the worst, I didn’t know anything other than she had been involved in a hit and run.
“The skin is all off her lower leg and there were bits of rubber stuck in her too, she didn’t get out of hospital until about 3am.
“She’s in a lot of pain. I’ve tried making her as comfortable as possible but it still hurts. She’s in shock and I heard her whimpering through the night.
“I’ve also had to wash her, because she’s not allowed to shower, so she’s lost a bit of dignity too.”
Police are now hunting the two men they believe were responsible for the accident, which was at the A947’s junction with Hillbrae Way.
Ms Fleming, who works as a manager at Links Nursery in Balmedie, has been forced to to take time off to look after her youngest daughter.
She said: “I just can’t believe that anyone would do that. I would stop if I had hit an animal, never mind a human. And it was light enough they would have been able to see what they had hit too.
“Lois says she thinks they were going faster than 40mph because she stepped off the bus and didn’t see the car, and then it came out of nowhere – but I don’t know how well she can judge speed because she doesn’t drive.
“Police have said the bus she was on was new so there’s a chance it was caught on CCTV.
“It was the first day of her school holidays, she’s old enough that I shouldn’t have to worry about her getting home alright.”
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Police are now appealing for the help of locals who have CCTV that might have captured the incident.
Sergeant Andy Ramsay, of road policing unit, said: “The girl was taken to Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital for treatment and thankfully has sustained only minor injuries.
“It goes without saying though that the outcome of this completely reckless act could have been much worse. ”
Anyone with information should call 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.