FRIGHTENED pensioner Doris Kay still has nightmares about the day a 16-ton crane smashed through the front of her maisonette home trapping her under piles of debris.

Doris, now 76, had lived in Myrtle Cottages, Bacup, for about ten years when the accident happened on February 20. She had been watching television when the Kato 16-ton truck-mounted crane, owned by Rossendale firm James Killelea and Co, smashed through her house.

She said: "All of as sudden it came through and I was under it. The next thing I remember is the firemen talking to me telling me to keep still."

Doris was trapped for 90 minutes while firefighters removed debris around her. Amazingly she escaped with just cuts and bruises. The front of her house was demolished and she lost everything in her home because she was not insured.

After the accident she initially went to stay with her son James in Alma Street, Bacup, and in March was rehomed by Rossendale Council into a flat on South Street. But Doris said she is still frightened.

She said: "I find myself jumping in my sleep and I can't stop thinking about what happened. I have nightmares and get flashbacks."

Her new home has been furnished by friends, neighbours and the local Christ Church.

She said: "I am not looking forward to Christmas. This year has just been too much for me."