A YOUNG woman was battling for her life today after suffering severe head injuries when she was knocked down by a tractor on an unlit country lane.

Valerie Pickard, 32, was hit by the tractor's nearside wheel near the Copy Nook Hotel outside Bolton-by-Bowland at around 10pm last night.

Miss Pickard, of Broxup Cottage, Holden, Bolton-by-Bowland, was walking along the lane with a friend when the accident happened.

Paramedics Derek Walsh and Mark Adamson gave her emergency treatment at the scene before she was taken to Blackburn Infirmary under police escort.

Mr Walsh said: "When we got to the scene she was unconscious with serious head injuries.

"We immobilised her by putting a collar round her neck and a head block to stop her head moving." Miss Pickard, an expert in sheep farming, is well known in local agricultural circles and was a past chairman of the Bolton-by-Bowland Young Farmers.

A former pupil of Bolton-by-Bolton Primary School and Bowland High School, she has also been involved in local amateur dramatics.

Former Young Farmers' chairman Michael Dakin said: " She has done all sorts of things for the village and is very popular."

Miss Pickard spent the night in intensive care at the Infirmary where her condition was described as "poorly but stable" earlier today.

The tractor driver, 60-year-old Jack Life, of Chadwick's Farm in Bolton-by-Bowland, was unhurt.

Police are appealing for witnesses to the accident and people with information are asked to ring 01254 353715 or 01254 353764.

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