AN 83-year-old grandmother who flipped her car onto its roof in an accident has vowed to keep on driving.

Eileen Talbot had enjoyed 55 years of accident-free motoring before wrote-off her Ford K2 after clipping a parked car.

But the widow was able to walk away from the smash with just a few bruises and has vowed to buy a new vehicle because she is "lost without her car".

Mrs Talbot, a former landlady and postmistress, said the accident felt like a bus had hit her but she said she stayed calm throughout the situation, even when stuck upside down in her car.

She said: "There is no way I will stop driving.

"I have been driving for 55 years and this is the first time I have ever had an accident.

"I am a good driver and it was a freak accident. I only use the car for little trips here and there and I intend to get a new car as soon as I can.

"I may be old but I feel young and it will take more than a little accident like this to stop me driving."

Mrs Talbot, of Whalley Road, Langho, was left covered in blood after the accident in Whalley Road, Wilpshire, on Wednesday.

She had been returning from a shopping trip in Blackburn when she clipped a Mini parked on the side of the road.

The impact flipped her car onto its roof but a police spokesman has said she is unlikely to face prosecution for what was a momentary misjudgement.

Mrs Talbot, whois believed to be one of the oldest drivers in Lancashire, said: "I was just driving along at around 27mph and suddenly I felt an impact like a bus had hit me.

"The next thing I knew I was upside down. I was screaming for someone to help me but I wasn't panicking. It isn't in my nature.

"A man came to my aid and he helped me from my car. There was a lot of blood coming out of my head but I was OK."

She was taken to Royal Blackburn Hospital and given a full check-over before being allowed home.

Mrs Talbot, who used to run Scaitcliffe Post Office in Accrington, said she didn't even tell her son Gerard in Liverpool for a day after the accident.

She said: "Everyone has been most concerned since the accident but I'm alright.

"Even the police when they arrived at the scene were amazed I was talking. I think they thought I was going to pop my clogs!"

Mrs Talbot passed her driving test in 1952 when four-months pregnant and her first car was a red Singer sports car.

Originally from Wilpshire she moved to Merseyside as a young woman before moving back to East Lancashire when her family took over the Whalley Arms pub in Whalley in 1953.

From the age of 70, motorists are required to complete a form every three years on which they should declare medical conditions.

No independent check is made on their fitness to drive and the system relies on the driver's honesty.