Baby girl’s lucky escape after police horse kicks pushchair
A baby girl had a lucky escape after a police horse kicked her pushchair.
The girl was taken to York Hospital after the incident during the launch of a new policing scheme in York.
Four mounted officers were in the city. One of the horses was spooked on High Ousegate at about 1pm.
It kicked out, hitting the pushchair containing seven-month-old Eden Stockton-Wilde.
Started screaming
Her mum, Kirsty Wilde, told the York Press that she was watching a busker with her family when it happened.
She said that the buggy folded in on itself.
“I could not see Eden at all as she was stuck underneath. At first she did not make a noise, I really thought she must be dead,” she told the paper.
“When I pulled Eden from the pram I just held her close. She started screaming as I held her and it was such a relief because I knew she was alive.”
A nearby paramedic came over to help. Eden was taken to York Hospital for a check up, but was found to be unhurt.
Police review
Two other people, an 11-year-old girl and a woman in her 60s, also suffered minor injuries but did not require hospital treatment.
A spokeswoman for North Yorkshire Police said that it appeared “that something may have distracted the horse” which led to the incident.
Assistant Chief Constable Amanda Oliver, of North Yorkshire Police, said: “We apologise to those affected by the incident in York on Tuesday afternoon.
“Thankfully there were no serious injuries and North Yorkshire Police immediately replaced the damaged pushchair.”
Extremely rare incident
Asst Ch Con Oliver added:
Incidents such as this are extremely rare.
I understand that this was a shock for those concerned and I am sorry this has happened.
Our officers are supporting the people involved while we carry out a review of the incident to establish the full circumstances.
The horse was in York for the launch of Project Servator, an innovative police scheme that deploys teams of specially-trained officers to deter, detect and disrupt criminal and terrorist activity in crowded places.
It sees the deployment of both highly visible and covert police officers and staff alongside other resources such as dogs, firearms, ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) and CCTV cameras in busy town centres and at large events.
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