A surgeon whose car hit a schoolgirl who stepped out in front of her must pay her £135,000 in damages.

Dr Shanthi Chandran collided with the 12-year-old after she stepped into the road on her way to school.

The incident happened at about 7.20am in Buckingham Road in Bicester in January 2018.

Dr Chandran, a consultant physician, was on her way to work at Milton Keynes hospital.

The child's head struck the nearside windscreen of her BMW i3 Range Extender, causing the glass to shatter.

The girl suffered a serious head injury, a bleed to the brain and fractured her left collarbone.

A police officer said with the force of the collision, the child’s body was “thrown” or carried 11 metres beyond the pedestrian crossing and almost to the entrance of a nearby petrol station.

Following the incident the girl was intubated and ventilated for three days and was in hospital for 10 days.

She was “left with cognitive and psychiatric problems” and suffered nightmares and "PTSD-type symptoms for the first year after the accident", said court documents.

Dr Chandran told police that "she was looking ahead while driving when she became aware of a 'thud' and her window 'smashed'.

She immediately stopped her car and saw that a young girl had been struck.

The case brought by girl - now an 18-year-old woman - was that the incident was caused by Dr Chandran's negligence, that she "was driving too fast given the prevailing conditions and if she were driving at a safe and reasonable speed, the collision would not have happened".

Dr Chandran stated instead that the incident was caused by the girl stepping out into the road when the lights were green.

She was driving at 28mph, which was below the applicable speed limit of 30 mph and appropriate for the conditions.

She was not reported by the police for any criminal offences.

The court found that the defendant was primarily responsible for the collision and apportioned liability 60/40 in the claimant’s favour.

The court determined a 40 per cent reduction in the initially proposed £225,000 damages "because of the contributory negligence of the claimant stepping out into the road while the traffic lights were green for traffic".

Deputy High Court Judge Dexter Dias KC paid tribute "to the immense dignity and restraint shown by the claimant’s parents, who sat through the entire trial hearing very distressing details about the circumstances in which serious injury was inflicted upon their daughter.

"What has happened has without question been life-altering for both of them and their daughter," he said.

"The court appreciates that no amount of money can turn back the clock and put their family in the position they would have been in had the injury to the claimant not occurred. 

"But I do hope that the end of these proceedings will be a relief and this long-awaited financial settlement will make life a little easier."

The compensation was determined at the High Court last month. The judgment was published on January 11.