SHE has been through the trauma of a serious road accident in which every bone in her face was broken.

Then, while in hospital, the dangers of joy riding were brought home to her when a young lad in the next bed - who had crashed while joy riding - died.

Today, Annie Greenwood threw her support behind The Press's Live Now, Drive Later campaign to deter youngsters from illegally taking and driving cars.

Annie, 65, of Dringhouses, York, said: "They are too young to go through these sorts of injuries. They think they are indestructible, but they are not."

Annie's face had to be re-built by two of the country's top surgeons using three plates and two screws after she was nearly killed in a car smash in Poppleton Road in 1990.

She said she was a back-seat passenger in a car which crashed head-on into a van, and a piece of metal spun round and struck her in the face. The all-day facial reconstruction operation at Pinderfields Hospital was one of the longest ever conducted. "I would like to pay tribute to the surgeons," she said. "They were wonderful."

She said that while she was in hospital, a young patient was brought in and put in the bed next to her. "He was one of two joy riders who had been put in intensive after crashing, and he was critically ill. I was lapsing in and out of consciousness, but I remember seeing his mother crying at his bedside and, as far as I am aware, he later died.

"It brought it home to me about the dangers of joy riding. I just want to put them off doing it, for those few minutes can cost you dearly."

Annie, who was nominated as Fundraiser Of The Year in the 2005 York Community Pride Awards for her work as a volunteer for OCAY (Older Citizens Advocacy Service), said she hoped the paper could succeed in its aims of preventing joy riding in the York area.

Our campaign was launched after an inquest heard how 15-year-old Joel Corner took his father's Audi car and crashed at high speed into a van in Stockton Lane, killing himself, his friend and front seat passenger Daniel Wright and van driver Peter Alexander.

The Press is hoping to produce a hard-hitting video to be shown in schools across the York area highlighting the dangers of joy riding. Annie said she had some pictures of her shortly after her facial surgery - too horrific to be shown in the newspaper - which she would be happy to be used in the video.