A driver who still suffers severe pain after a car smash has criticised the £255 fine imposed on the motorist who caused it.
Christine Morling, 59, of Drayton Road, Sutton Courtenay, says she will never be able to walk normally again following the crash on November 9 last year on the A44 at Salford Hill, Chipping Norton. Christine Morling
The mother-of-four was cut from the crumpled wreck and airlifted to hospital where she spent two weeks in intensive care. Both her feet were smashed and she suffered a broken sternum, broken shoulder and broken fingers and toes. She had two plates put in her right ankle.
Mrs Morling described the fine given to the other driver who caused the accident as "ludicrous and outrageous".
Sadie Spencer, of Offenham, Gloucestershire, was prosecuted for careless driving at Banbury Magistrates Court. She was fined £255 and ordered to pay £35. She kept her licence, which was endorsed with five penalty points.
Spencer's Rover 600 veered into the path of a lorry, driven by Roland Stowe, of Chipping Norton, which smashed into Mrs Morling's Ford Mondeo.
"It was amazing I survived," Mrs Morling said. "I remember her going straight across the road into the lorry's wheels. She burst them and the lorry went over me and my car. I'm angry about what she got, very angry. It has affected my life in every way. I can't get more mobility in my right foot and I can't bend it. It's got two plates in it.
"I can't bear to go past the spot where it happened."
She criticised the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for not prosecuting Spencer for dangerous driving, a more serious charge.
Mrs Morling, whose husband Michael was killed 30 years ago in an air crash, says she is selling her house because she will not be able to tend its garden.
She has started to walk without the aid of crutches, but this leaves her in constant pain. She says she is already suffering from osteoarthritis.
"It's agonising first thing in the morning - I can't walk," she said.
"I don't lose hope. I became depressed about a month ago, about what the future held. I'm gradually getting over it."
Mrs Morling needed cosmetic surgery to a cut on her face. She also underwent an eight-hour operation in which muscle was taken from her stomach and grafted on to her right ankle. She has been left with a 12-inch scar on her stomach.
Police spokesman David Campbell said that following the accident they made an appeal for witnesses and passed details on to the CPS. He said: "It is their role to make a decision on what sort of charge to bring."
CPS spokesman Shelley Cranshaw said: "In law, dangerous driving is driving which will fall far below the standard of the prudent driver, and careless driving is driving which departs from the standard."
She said she could not discuss how the CPS had decided which charge to bring, but added: "If the victim will contact us directly, it may be we can speak to her about the case."
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