A woman knocked down at a pedestrian crossing in Glasgow has been awarded more than £1m in damages.

Alison McDonald, 31, would have received £1.5m had the judge at the Court of Session in Edinburgh not ruled she was one third to blame for the accident.

Miss McDonald was badly injured and left with permanent brain damage following the accident at a crossing in Bearsden in January 1994.

The former childminder from Wishaw sued the driver of the car, 82-year-old Glasgow woman Sarah Chambers, for £1,535,407.

Lord McCluskey said: "She was an able, competent, pleasant, healthy person with a full life ahead of her.

"That life has been snatched from her and she knows it.

"What makes the present case special, in my estimation, is that Miss McDonald has a very definite insight into the gap between her reach and her grasp.

"This is a source of great frustration to her and I think it is likely to prove so for the rest of her life."

Long-term care

Miss McDonald was left in a deep coma after the life-threatening accident. She can no longer work and requires long-term care.

Mrs Chambers later admitted a careless driving charge but was unfit to attend the subsequent civil damages action brought against her.

Lord McCluskey said: "There can be no doubt that she failed to drive with reasonable care, because having observed the lights at amber and having observed Miss McDonald on the island, then taking several steps and emerging onto the crossing, she apparently took no steps to brake or to sound the horn or swerve."

But, the judge added: "Miss McDonald must have failed to take reasonable care to check that it was safe for her to leave the island.

"She must have walked into the path of a car which was moving and visible."

He decided Miss McDonald was one third to blame for the accident and the damages were reduced to £1,023,605.