A Cambridge man whose wife and father in law died when their family was hit by a suspected drug driver while walking described feeling ’empty’ at seeing his wife’s dress under the car while his eight-year-old son asked: ‘Is this real?’
Omer Sella, 40, gave his harrowing account of being knocked down and realising his wife, Noga Sella, 37, had died after being hit by a car to Canterbury Crown Court.
During an interview he told detectives: ‘I felt an immense amount of force hitting me – like a wardrobe or a piece of furniture being thrust against me.
‘I’m not sure if I closed my eyes or lost vision.’
Omer Sella, 40, gave his harrowing account of being knocked down and realising his wife, Noga Sella, 37, (both pictured) had died after being hit by a car to Canterbury Crown Court
Nitesh Bissendary, 30, was allegedly under the influence of cocaine when his black Alfa Romeo mounted the pavement in Leopold Street, Ramsgate, Kent, killing Cambridge scientist Noga Sella and her 81-year-old Professor father Yoram Hirshfeld
Mr Sella, who was left with a lacerated spleen, said he was thrown into the air, before thinking: ‘Any moment now I will lose consciousness or die, but I didn’t – I was still awake.’
The father-of-two also said he noticed his wife motionless under the car which had become lodged against a bench.
He recalled: ‘I recognised her dress first, I started calling “my wife is under the car, my wife is under the car” and I saw my son was limping.
‘It felt empty. I thought, “Where is the rest of us? Where is the rest of the group?'”‘
The couple’s six-year-old daughter also sustained a life-threatening head injury during the incident.
Mr Sella said he was unable to find the little girl’s pulse while his injured eight-year-old son asked: ‘Is this real? Is this real life?’
Jurors heard Mr Sella’s account at Canterbury Crown Court during the trial against Nitesh Bissendary, 30, who was allegedly under the influence of cocaine when his black Alfa Romeo mounted the pavement in Leopold Street, Ramsgate, Kent, killing Cambridge scientist Noga Sella and her 81-year-old Professor father Yoram Hirshfeld.
Prosecutor Nina Ellin said Bissendary fled after the crash but was driven back to the scene by his parents to retrieve his drugs while the mum-of-two was still trapped underneath.
Dressed in a dark suit, Bissendary leant forwards with his head down as the evidence was read.
The tragedy unfolded outside a multi-storey car park at about 9.30pm on August 10, when the family – who were visiting from Cambridge – were walking back to their hotel after a meal.
Jurors gasped in court when CCTV showed the moment Bissendary’s black Alfa Romeo mounted the pavement and crashed into the pedestrians from behind in Leopold Street.
Mr Sella recalled about the accident: ‘I recognised her dress first, I started calling “my wife is under the car, my wife is under the car” and I saw my son was limping. It felt empty. I thought, “Where is the rest of us? Where is the rest of the group?”‘
Cambridge physicist Mrs Sella and her father Mr Hirshfeld died on August 10 after they were involved in a crash with a black Alfa Romeo outside a car park in Ramsgate, Kent
Footage also showed the victims hugging and waving off two family members in Queen Street following the meal, just minutes before they were killed.
Jurors then saw CCTV footage of Bissendary fleeing the scene on foot and contacting his father by phone as the emergency services worked on the victims nearby.
Eyewitnesses described hearing ‘crunching noises and screaming’, Ms Ellin explained on Monday, which prompted people to rush to the scene.
Emergency services then discovered Mrs Sella’s body underneath the abandoned car.
She was pronounced dead at the scene, having suffered multiple injuries and features of ‘traumatic asphyxia’.
Mrs Sella’s family previously revealed she was five weeks pregnant when she was allegedly hit by Bissendary’s vehicle outside a carpark in Ramsgate.
Mrs Sella’s father, Mr Hirshfeld, 81, a former maths Professor at Tel Aviv University was understood to be visiting her from Israel when tragedy struck.
He suffered a cardiac arrest inside an ambulance and was pronounced dead at 11.40pm.
Police found no defect with the car that could have contributed to the crash, prosecutors said yesterday.
But a subsequent investigation revealed fluid leaked from inside the mechanism, which Bissendary allegedly had been aware of for about six months.
Bissendary, of Highlands Glade in Manston, previously pleaded guilty to two counts of causing death by careless driving, but denies the more serious charges of causing death by dangerous driving after Mrs Sella (pictured) and her father were killed
Bissendary’s black Alfa Romeo collided with the family outside a multistorey car park. The accused argued he crashed following a ‘momentary lapse in concentration to resolve a clutch issue’
Bissendary, of Highlands Glade in Manston, previously pleaded guilty to two counts of causing death by careless driving, but denies the more serious charges of causing death by dangerous driving.
He also denies two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
However, he has admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm, failing to provide a sample for analysis and possession with intent to supply cocaine, a Class A drug.
Bissendary argues he crashed following a ‘momentary lapse in concentration to resolve a clutch issue’, Suriner Singh Gohlan, defending, previously told the court.
In a police interview, Bissendary told officers he ‘didn’t intentionally drive into people – the car just veered to the left’.
He claimed there was an issue with a wheel, before making no comment to further questions.
The trial continues.
DailyMail
