Half of woman's skull missing after horrific hit-and-run by uninsured driver in South London
ITV News London joins police undertaking documentation checks on vehicles as London is revealed to have the highest number of uninsured drivers in the UK
A woman was left with half her skull missing after being hit by an uninsured hit-and-run driver speeding on the wrong side of the road.
Emily Bradfield was walking on the pavement in South London with her boyfriend when the car suddenly appeared driving fast up to a junction.
She was left with no memory of the crash but suffered horrific injuries and had to be put in a coma.
Initially, police thought she was dead.
"I was in Crystal Palace at my then boyfriend's house and we were going to the station," Emily told ITV News London.
"We had just come out of his house on the pavement walking towards the station and a car came up onto the pavement and smacked into me driving far too fast coming up to a junction.
"I had to be dragged off the road. Luckily a nurse saw what happened - the police wrote me off as a fatality - but the nurse said no.
"An air ambulance came out and saved my life. For three weeks I was in a coma, I had a nurse with me 24 hours a day watching over me.
"The right side of my skull had just shattered they had to get rid of that to stop the bleeding.
"They left it, put the skin back up, and I didn't have a skull for about seven months."
Emily said rehabilitation took about four years and she has now finished an intensive course of physiotherapy in two rehab centres.
She considers herself lucky because sometimes when people come out of a coma they lose the ability to speak.
Emily added: "I didn't know where I was and I don't have any memory of the accident whatsoever.
"One side of my skull is titanium now which sets off alarms in airports.
"But as a side effect, I have a condition which means I cry or laugh at inappropriate moments - known as the Pseudobulbar affect (PBA)."
And shockingly the driver of the car that hit Emily has still not been found.
She said: "They couldn't find the driver for a bit but they found the car and they got DNA inside it.
"They still don't know who the driver was - so we'll never know who it was.
"But it was associated with crime because, in the back of one of the cars, there was a bag of burner phones and a baseball bat."
Police in London have been stepping up efforts to catch people driving illegally after it was revealed the capital has the highest number of uninsured drivers in the UK.
Enfield, Barking and Dagenham and Havering have been named the worst three London boroughs for uninsured driving, according to the Motor Insurers' Bureau.
Paul Farley, Law Enforcement Manager at MIB, said: "As a former Police Officer, I’ve seen first-hand the devastation uninsured drivers can cause to communities across London.
"To help make roads safer for everyone, we’re working tirelessly with the police to get these dangerous illegal motorists off the road.
"Those who think they’re above the law and can drive without insurance can think again.”
In addition, to being more dangerous, uninsured drivers cost law-abiding motorists an average of £53 each in their insurance premiums every year.
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