‘It happened so fast’ Scottish schoolboy tells of horrific hit and run

Cameron Wilson speaking to Channel 5 for a documentary on moped crime.

Ten-year-old Cameron Wilson was walking with his mother and sister in 2017 when a moped ploughed on Ferry Road into him before speeding off, leaving the youngster in a life-threatening condition.

Now recovered, Cameron has told the story of the incident as part of the first instalment of a new Channel 5 documentary, Snatch & Grab: Moped Gangs on the Rampage.

The programme examines moped and motorbike crime across the UK and the measures police are taking to combat it.

Christine - mother of Cameron - who was injured in a hit and run accident in Edinburgh

Cameras followed specialist police units tackling moped gangs and vigilantes working to stop the perpetrators of these crimes.

Cameron’s mother Christine told the programme what she remembered of the horrifying incident.

“It started out as a fairly normal day. The traffic stopped on both sides and I turned around for two seconds.

“I heard the impact from the bike to Cameron, and then Holly’s scream, a scream I’ve never heard before... that her brother had just been hit by a motorbike.

“He was just bleeding everywhere. His leg wasn’t where it was supposed to be... he wasn’t in a good way.

The last words Christine remembers her nine-year-old daughter Holly saying to her at the time were to ask if her brother was going to die.

“I had to tell her… I don’t know.”

Cameron himself does not remember much of the traumatic collision.

“It happened quite fast,” he said.

“I had to get surgery because they thought my neck was damaged and my brain was damaged, so I had an X-ray and then surgery the same day.”

He said what upset him most was the fact that the driver of the motorbike did not stop, and did not seem concerned after having knocked him over. “The guy who hit me left me for dead, that’s what I’m most upset about.”

Christine blamed the incident on joyriders playing a ‘game’ with police.

“Bike crime happens probably because they can, especially the last years before Cameron got hit, it was a game.

“It was a game between the police and the joyriders. They knew they couldn’t be stopped, and to be honest in our area the only reason it has stopped is because my child nearly ended up dead.” The programme also features Operation Soteria, an Edinburgh Police initiative to tackle motorbike theft and associated antisocial behaviour set up in 2016.

The initiative involves the use of off-road police motorbikes funded by Edinburgh Council. Police also use ‘bait bikes’ to lure offenders into getting caught red-handed.

Motorbikes are left apparently unattended in crime hotspots, but are closely watched by police who chase and attempt to arrest would-be thieves. Episode 1 of Snatch & Grab: Moped Gangs on the Rampage is available at www.channel5.com.