A WOMAN who was left fighting for her life after her motorised trike hit an unlit bollard is considering legal action against her local council.

The move was revealed as Ann Marney, 44, spoke for the first time about the moment she nearly died and the accident which left her requiring emergency brain surgery.

She was seriously injured when her converted Reliant Robin smashed into the bollard on Lee Lane, Great Harwood, as she was overtaking another vehicle at 9.30pm on July 29.

It is a legal requirement that bollards are lit through the hours of darkness. Hyndburn Council workers discovered the light was not working a week before the accident.

It was scheduled for repair on the day of the crash but the work had had to be postponed because it was more complicated than first thought.

Mrs Marney's brother, Mark Neal, of South Street, Accrington, said the family had been told she could have been left blind, deaf or unable to walk.

Yesterday, just over four weeks after the accident, the mother-of-four, of James Street, Great Harwood, said she remembered nothing about it though she has been left needing a walking stick, glasses to reduce double vision and dizziness, and physiotherapy. She is also unable to wash and dress herself without help, she said.

Mr Neal said his sister may need care for the rest of her life and he felt angry the bollard had not been repaired before the accident.

"If somebody is going to have to look after her, someone's going to have to pay for it. And if it's the council's fault it should be them. We are going to see a solicitor to see where we stand legally," he said.

After spending nearly a month in the Royal Preston Hospital, Mrs Marney was discharged last week. She said the frustration of having to depend on other people had made her so depressed she had contemplated suicide.

"I'm fed up of being unable to do what I want to do, it's horrible," she said.

"There are a lot of things I can't do. I have got to have someone to help me dress myself, have a wash, and go up and down the stairs. It's frustrating.

"I don't remember anything. I have been past where it happened and it doesn't bring anything back. I don't want to know. I know what my kids went through and I'm glad I don't remember it."

The bollard was repaired and working the day after the accident. Coun Tim O'Kane, who holds the environment and cleansing portfolio at Hyndburn Council, said: "We sympathise with Mrs Marney and her family, and are taking this matter very seriously, but, as the council's insurers are in the process of investigating the accident we are unable to comment further at this time."

Mrs Marney, who worked as an ironer at North's Cleaners, on Whalley Road, Accrington, before the accident, will need more surgery to remove a cyst that developed from a blood clot on her ankle after the accident.

She said she had sat on the trike since the accident but was too frightened to stay on it.

She was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash as the vehicle was in the same licensing category as a car.

"It was my pride and joy but I have got to sell it," she said.

"The only time I wore a helmet was on the motorway.

"I wish I had worn a helmet because I wouldn't have come off as bad as I did if I had."

Mrs Marney said she was completely oblivious to what had happened. "I spoke to my sister last night on the phone for the first time in 10 years, not knowing she had been every day to see me," she said.