07/03/2017 North West Tonight

An 89-year-old driver is under arrest tonight after a car ploughed

into pedestrians outside a Manchester hospital,

The tragedy happened in a car park at Withington Community

Our reporter Mark Edwardson is at the hospital now.

Well, I don't know if you can see behind me, but you can see the

aftermath of the incident this afternoon, the scene has been sealed

off with temporary barriers. There are two big metal bollards that have

been knocked down and a slight dent in the wall, such was the force of

the impact. Police tell us that at about 2:05pm a green Ford focus

manoeuvring in this area outside main reception at Withington

Hospital appears to have gone out of control. It has run into a group of

pedestrians and unfortunately two women suffered what were described

at the time as life-threatening injuries.

Sadly, both women have died haven't they?

found out that one of the women had found out that one of the women had

died at around 5pm and about one hour later we were also told that

the second woman had died as well. All police will tell us about them

is that they were 44 and 49 and the next of kin have been informed.

Well, police tell us the driver of the green Ford Focus was an

89-year-old man. He has been arrested on suspicion of causing

death by dangerous driving and is currently in custody and being

questioned by the police. For its part the hospital says its

condolence and thoughts are with the families of those two women tonight.

Police say anybody who saw the collision today or sort the green

Ford Focus being driven in or around the hospital early this afternoon,

they are urging people who may have seen have all witnessed anything to

come forward and tell them what they saw. Thank you very much.

A new strain of the drug Spice, which temporarily paralyses people,

is causing serious concern in our region.

People who've smoked the drug often become frozen like statues

The paralysis can last for up to half an hour,

and people sometimes injure themselves falling over

New pictures taken by the BBC today suggest some users become

One charity claims 95% of Manchester's homeless community

is now taking Spice, which used to be legal,

Earlier I spoke to Julie Boyle from from the homeless

I began by asking her how bad the situation has become.

It's rife within the homeless community.

I'd say that 95% of the people who are sleeping rough

are probably smoking Spice, certainly with our

And how do people get on to Spice to start with?

It's usually given to them as a cheap alternative to cannabis

and some people take it so they get to sleep at nights, so they are not

aware of the dangers around them, and it soon turns into an addiction.

We have seen some really horrifying pictures

Just describe what it does to people who take it.

Well you have got the statue-like effects that we have

We have also got people who have been groomed into sex work,

who have been sexually assaulted because they are completely out

of it on Spice, so that different things are happening to them

People might assume that heroin is the drug that has

the worst impact on people, but it sounds like this

It's worse than heroin, it's harder to get, people go

from heroin to Spice in the hope that they can get off it easier

The symptoms of withdrawal with Spice are worse

Because its chemical and we don't know what's in it.

We have got no idea what chemicals are in it.

They change the chemical compound on a regular basis

so you are playing catch up all the time

to find out what's in it, in order to get an antidote for it.

What can the authorities do now to crack down on this?

I think more enforcement on the streets, but not necessarily

It's the bigger ones who are making young people go out,

carrying class A drugs they are going to prosecute

if they get caught but they are also feeding their habit.

We're talking about a former legal high, as we called it, are we?

It doesn't appear to have worked, outlawing it?

We've never had as many ambulance call-outs, police call-outs,

and violence amongst our clients as we have since it came,

From your experience working with homeless people,

what impact is it having on people's lives.

It's awful because, you know, they don't engage in any services,

they lose their accommodation because they are not

attending key work sessions, they have got nothing.

It is tunnel vision, just heading towards where can I get

And that has an impact on their life.

When they run out of options, at a certain point, if they are not

engaging they're not going to get anywhere to live.

I know you've worked in the homeless community for some years.

How would you compare this to other crisis that have come before?

As I've said before, this is an epidemic.

It's something that I've never seen before and the majority

of the people out there are under the influence of Spice,

for whatever reason, and it's the addiction that's

the problem, so we need to try and tackle the addiction

And you can hear more on that story on BBC Radio Manchester's Breakfast

Show tomorrow morning with Alison Butterworth

A woman from Merseyside says she was repeatedly

raped by an ex-boyfriend during a two-month road trip

A 22-year-old man from Cairns has been charged with rape,

Detectives say the victim, also aged 22, survived an horrific

The suspect was found in the boot of a 4x4 after the distressed woman

The former Crewe Alexandra football coach Barry Bennell has been charged

with eight counts of sexually abusing children during the 1980's.

He's accused of assaulting two boys, both aged under 16.

Mr Bennell will appear before South Cheshire Magistrates

Trains to London from Liverpool Lime Street resumed

tonight after engineers cleared 200 tonnes of rubble from the track

The first Virgin service out of Lime Street this evening

All services, including Northern Rail, will resume tomorrow morning.

An MP is demanding to know what caused the contamination

of Lancashire's water supplies 18 months ago, forcing

thousands of people to boil their water for a month.

The Fylde MP Mark Menzies is angry the Drinking Water Inspectorate

still hasn't published its report on the incident at the

Here's our Chief Reporter Dave Guest.

Well, this is what caused the problem, cryptosparidium,

a nasty bug that causes serious stomach and breathing problems.

Now on August 6th, 2015, traces of it were found

So United Utilities ordered people to boil tap water

Around 300,000 homes and businesses were affected.

Restrictions were in place for roughly one month.

The Drinking Water Inspectorate began an immediate

investigation to find out what went wrong but as yet they are not

It became a daily ritual for thousands in Lancashire

For a month they were told to boil water or drink bottled water

after the main supply was contaminated by a bug

The source of the problem was traced to the Frankkaw treatment works.

But despite 18 months of investigation by the Drinking

Water Inspectorate we still don't know how it happened.

I will be writing today to the Secretary of State to demand

that she puts pressure on the Drinking Water Inspectorate

what happened and what they are going to do about it.

The Drinking Water Inspectorate, over 18 months on, is still refusing

to shed any light on it, and it is not acceptable.

The staff at the Brookside Care home, say the water restrictions

Well, the care home sector in itself is a very

demanding environment to be in, so it was an added demand that went

on far longer than I think everybody expected.

What do you think of the fact that 18 months on we still

don't know what caused it, we still have had no official report?

We still haven't had, in effect, a risk assessment to say

this is what happened, this is how it happened

and what measures have been put in place to stop it happening again.

The Consumer Council for Water has similar concerns.

We are disappointed that it has taken so long.

Consumers need to have confidence in their water supplies

and they are frustrated that we don't have clarity at this

point on what causes were at the ability

So we've written to the Drinking Water Inspectorate

The Drinking Water Inspectorate told us the process is continuing

and a report will be published when that process is complete.

But as yet it's non-committal about when that will be.

Football, and in the Championship both Blackburn and Preston scored

90th minute equalisers to earn 1-1 draws tonight.

Rovers levelled late on against Cardiff, and North End

In League 2, Blackpool enjoyed an impressive 3-0 victory

That is it from me and here That is it from me and here is Diane

cloud but probably dry, a chance of rain on Saturday. The national

picture now from Nick Miller. It looks like next week high

pressure will become a player again in our weather, settling things down

for some of us for a time but until then it is low-pressure, rain moving

across the UK overnight but not wet all the time. Many of us at a fine

day today, this was at you from West Yorkshire and Yorkshire and