HORROR accident victim Margaret Williams says she believes that the driver who ran over her should have got more than the three months behind bars he has been sentenced to.

The 74-year-old pensioner is about to begin her fight for compensation after she was crushed by a commercial van which reversed right over her body, leaving her close to death.

Meanwhile Miss Williams said she was 'glad' the driver of the van was now behind bars.

But she added: 'I don't think it is long enough for what he did. He will be out in a month and a half – or even less.'

Alan Cross, of Davies Close, Silverton, near Exeter, was sentenced to three months in prison after he was convicted of dangerous driving at Plymouth Crown Court.

He was also banned from driving for 12 months and will have to take a new driving test before he can get his licence back.

Cross had denied the charge and fought the case through a three-day crown court trial before being found guilty.

Miss Williams was left in intensive care for five days after the commercial meat delivery van Mr Cross was driving reversed over her body crushing her arm, chest and face.

She still had problems leaving her flat without the support of the friend more than 16 months after the accident at the junction of The Quay and Fairfax Place just after 8am on Friday, October 22, 2010.

Miss Williams, who lives in Mayors Avenue, said that now the criminal case has been completed her solicitors are instructing barristers over a claim for compensation against the Cross' employer's insurers. She said she had no idea how much they would be asking for as a result of the accident.

But she pointed out that she had spent more than £1,000 on dental bills herself after the accident which crushed her face so badly that she lost most of her teeth.

She said that the only cash that had been offered her was £200 from the insurers towards the dental bills.

She also had to find £300 to replace her spectacles which were also crushed in the accident.

'A friend had to pay for those while I was in hospital,' she said.

Miss Williams said her injuries had been so severe that the doctors thought she was going to die.

And she said that she is so badly haunted by the incident still that she has trouble going out without a friend and can barely pass the area where the accident happened in the town centre.

She said she often wakes up shaking because of the accident.

'I had very bad night last night. I suppose it was from reading all the papers from the solicitor which brought it all back,' she explained.