A WOMAN seriously injured in a road accident claims she could not even recognise her children after her memory was wiped away in the crash.

Tracey Howarth from Westhoughton suffered horrific head injuries when the van she was driving skidded on black ice and crashed into a wall, throwing her through a window.

Her injuries were so severe Tracey could not remember her own children -- Sianne and Nathan -- when they visited her in the Royal Bolton Hospital.

And she also could not remember the death of her own mother in 1997 after the accident -- near the junction of Belmont Road and Scout Road, Bolton -- wiped two and a half years of memories from her mind.

The 32-year-old mum-of-two, who is now fighting for compensation, says her memory loss proved a trauma for her family, adding: "The first few months were a nightmare for them and especially my children.

"It must have really hurt them seeing me and me not recognising their faces. My mum died in November 1997 and I can't recall anything after about halfway through that year onwards.

"My family and friends have told me that I was in a really bad state when my Mum died and that I couldn't deal with it at all, so perhaps my brain just shut off."

Tracey, who still has no recollection of the accident itself, has been unable to come to terms with her 57-year-old mother's death.

Her 39-year-old sister Julie, who lives in Westhoughton, broke the news to Tracey 10 days after the accident.

Their mum had developed cancer and died within weeks of diagnosis. Tracey even had her mum's birth and death dates tattooed on her arm, but was unable to understand what the dates signified following the accident.

Tracey has struggled back to good health over the past few months and now remembers most people, but faced the agony of her nine-year-old son moving in with her sister as she struggled to pick up the pieces.

She said: "My son Nathan is happier now living with my sister Julie because I couldn't cope. She has put up with an awful lot and I'm grateful to her."

Tracey, who was working as a driver for a dry-cleaning company at the time of the accident, admits she has put her family through hell.

Tracey, who now lives in Oxlea Grove with her 14-year-old daughter Sianne, had been living in Farnworth at the time of the accident, but returned to Westhoughton where she had been brought up and could be near friends and family.

She has recently started work for a pizza firm in Westhoughton and takes each day at a time.

She said: "One of the strangest things to happen is the fact I'm now good friends with people who I had previously fallen out with in that two and a half year gap or didn't know that well.

"The only good thing to come out of the accident is the fact I always had a bad phobia of death, but now I'm not worried at all because I've come so close to dying myself."

Tracey, who has five brothers and sisters, is now determined to fight for a compensation pay-out and hopes a local solicitor might take on her case.

She has already been warned a legal battle could cost her at least £15,000, but believes she is entitled to compensation if she can prove the Belmont road, which partly comes under the jurisdiction of Blackburn Council and partly under Bolton Council, was not fully gritted.

She added: "I won't ever go up that road again as long as I live, but I want drivers to be careful there because so many people have been killed or seriously injured at the same spot."