A HEXHAM woman is pressing for improved safety conditions on the road where she suffered life-changing injuries in an horrific crash.

Gabriela Strnadova this week described losing control of her car on a remote road near Kielder as the scariest moment of her life.

On November 23, the 46-year-old left Kielder for work at Hexham’s Marks & Spencer store. However, after hitting a patch of ice, covered with water, she lost control.

Gabriela said: “I tried to brake; I tried to steer because I saw a car on the opposite side of the road but I was helpless.”

Her Volvo collided with a Toyota Hilux on the C200 road between Kielder village and Lewisburn.

Gabriela suffered a fractured skull, broken ribs, bleeding on the lung and damaged nerves which have left her with no feeling in her right arm.

Her leg was so badly broken that surgeons had to shorten it by four centimetres. Gabriela is currently wheelchair-bound.

Unable to return to her Hexham home, she is staying in Kielder with friend Andy Hall.

Gabriela said: “I used to be a very active person; now I’m stuck in the house and I’m glad if I can make myself a cup of tea. It is frustrating.”

Andy and Gabriela are now pressing for safety to be stepped up on the C200 road.

Andy said: “We want the road to be considered a priority. It’s a school route, used by 30-tonne timber wagons.”

A spokesman for Northumberland County Council said: “We routinely carry out precautionary gritting on a network of 29 main and strategic routes, including the C200.

“Our routes are planned so that treated roads can be reached within no more than five miles for rural residents.”