POLICE hunting a callous motorist who left an elderly pedestrian for dead after a hit-and-run accident have set up a confidential hotline for information.

Traffic officers hunting the motorist - who they believe may be a private hire taxi driver - are urging friends to "shop him."

And today, as 62-year-old pedestrian Kenneth Bell was still clinging to life in a Bolton hospital's intensive care unit, the man leading the hunt, Insp Brian Goulding, head of the Bolton Police Traffic Unit, warned the driver: "Give yourself up before we get you. There is no escape."

The police chief believes the driver is being shielded by colleagues or relatives.

Mr Bell of Belmont Road, Bolton, was involved in the accident with the car in Blackburn Road at 9.05pm on Sunday, near the Three Pigeons pub. He was carried on the bonnet and roof of the car before being catapulted into the road as the driver raced away. Other passing motorists and pedestrians stopped to help Mr Bell and comforted him at the roadside until ambulance paramedics arrived. Four days after the accident he is still "very poorly" in the intensive care unit at Bolton General Hospital.

Police reinforcements from other towns have been drafted in to join the hunt for the driver. Teams of officers are now visiting every taxi firm in the town. Insp Goulding said: "It beggars belief that a motorist can plough down a pedestrian and leave him critically injured in this way. The driver may not have seen Mr Bell in the road before the accident but there is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that he knows what he has done."

Police say the car involved is a white saloon car which witnesses say had a taxi plate on the rear. The vehicle will have been damaged.

Any garage owner, friends, colleagues or "punters" dropped off in the Astley Bridge area that night, who believe they know the driver, is asked to contact the police team on the hotline number 0161 856 5972.

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