VIDEO: Crimewatch appeal over hit-and-run smash which left boy, 16, in hospital

The appeal featured 16-year-old Joshua Sykes (pictured in hospital), who was knocked off his moped near Thurnscoe in April when he was hit by a black van.

The latest edition of Crimewatch, which was screened on Friday, included interviews with Joshua and his mother Alison, who is desperate to see the people responsible brought to justice. 

“Who goes hurtling around knocking people off their bikes? I could have been killed,”  Joshua told the programme.

“I almost hit a lamppost. If I’d have hit that I would be dead. It’s just not right.”

Alison described the moped as Joshua’s “pride and joy”.

Joshua was riding on his moped — described by his mum as his “pride and joy” — to his grandparents’ house on April 26 when he was tailgated by a black van or people carrier, which overtook him before stopping.

A passenger got out, but Joshua rode off.

The van chased him along Middlecliff Road before swerving him and knocking him off, leaving him briefly unconscious and causing a broken pelvis, damage to his kidney and an ankle wound.

Joshua also needed a blood transfusion and spent five days in hospital.

“I can remember the van swerving but I can’t remember anything else,” he said.

Alison said: “I believe they targeted him that day.”

Police said they believed the collision was “a deliberate act” by the driver.

They are keen to speak two key witnesses who have never been traced — one man who may have seen the accident and stopped to help, and another who gave Joshua first aid at the roadside.

Anyone with information about the hit-and-run incident, which happened at about 12.35pm on April 26, should call South Yorkshire Police on 101.