Lives shattered by dangers of Shropshire's A49

But the 48-year-old had no idea she would be involved in one that would leave her out of work, struggling to walk and recovering for years.

In 2012, Miss Hughes had been taking a patient to hospital when she was herself involved in a fatal crash.

"I was working for the West Midlands Ambulance Service and we had been to an RTC in Whitchurch," she said.

"We had been bringing a patient back. But the rest that I know is what I have been told – I can't remember anything from leaving Whitchurch and getting into the cab.

"The next thing I knew I was waking up in Birmingham Hospital.

"We had come down the A49, and just come into Preston Brockhurst. I always drive at the speed limit, if not lower when there is someone in the back because we have to try and make it as comfortable for the patient as possible. She was fully immobilised.

"But they said this car came from nowhere. A young lad was overtaking and he was going in the direction of Whitchurch."

Miss Hughes had been involved in a crash that tragically killed 25-year-old Kieran Moore-Hughes, of Heath Farm, Shrewsbury.

The inquest into his death back in 2012 heard that his blue Volkswagen Golf collided head-on with the ambulance, and had been on the wrong side of the road trying to overtake.

Evidence had suggested Mr Moore-Hughes had been speeding, and he had died of multiple injuries.

Miss Hughes said: "I was just coming out of Preston Brockhurst when we met him, I remember my colleague was standing up.

"I think there was a huge impact when his car hit the ambulance.

"The patient in the ambulance was fine, she was on an immobiliser board, so she barely felt a thing.

"But she was the only person who was conscious through the whole thing.

"The ambulance had buckled. They couldn't get the back doors open to get my colleague out who had been knocked unconscious.

"My cab had been completely crushed. When I braked the impact of his car pushed my cab back inwards and my leg went through my pelvis.

"It was completely shattered."

Miss Hughes, of Canal View in Llanymynech, said the accident had been horrifying, and she was still recovering years later.

Having to learn to walk again, giving up her job and losing contact with some friends and family have been some of the hardest points in her life.

She said: "My recovery is going to be ongoing for ever now.

"They said it would be about three years but I would add another six to 12 months on to that as it will be four years soon.

"I had to completely learn to walk again. It wasn't a normal hip replacement as they had to rebuild the right side of my pelvis. I came home for three months but then it shattered and I had to have a hip replacement.

"It was really hard for me, I was stuck at home 24 hours a day.

"In the circumstances of the work it is something ambulance crews get used to but never know about afterwards.

"I think it is something they could do with being talked to about.

"They go to so many accidents, but they can't know the impact of the incident after. They never see a patient afterwards.

"I went back to work for the service in 2013, but I had to stop soon after that."

Miss Hughes added: "I found that I had been used to carrying heavy patients down a staircase but I was struggling with light ladies after the accident.

"I have been looking ever since for something I can do. Leaving that job was the hardest thing I have done in my life. I always loved doing it."

Earlier this year the A49, which runs from Whitchurch to Ludlow, was named the county's deadliest road after figures show a third of fatal accidents had happened on the trunk road over a three-year period.

Last year two people died on the same stretch between Hadnall and Preston Brockhurst within just two months. Miss Hughes said: "I had never been to an RTC myself on that road but I do know it was known as a bad road.

"You always see the idiots racing down there – road signs seem to mean nothing to them.

"I did drive down that road once I got back in the car to see if I got any flashbacks or anything. I just couldn't understand how he couldn't see me – it is so tragic that he lost his life.

"And now my life has completely changed.

"There are so many accidents down that road. I don't know what they will do about it to make it any easier – maybe they could have double white lines to stop people overtaking."