An elderly pensioner was left badly hurt after rusty, spiked iron railings suddenly collapsed, sending her tumbling down a 10-foot drop of concrete steps. Widow Theresa Smith, 83, said she was lucky to survive the fall and the impact of the eight-foot length of five-foot-high railings which later took three men to lift away. Great-grandmother Mrs Smith, who has lived in Chestnut Avenue, Wonford, her entire life, was left bloody and bruised at the bottom of the six steps, with a broken finger and foot bone. Now she is too scared to use the steps, which lead from her home to the street below, until the railings, more than 70 years old, are replaced. She said: "I do believe I am lucky to be alive. If it had been a child or somebody more frail than I then I'm sure they would have been killed. "I was standing at the top of the steps when the railings behind fell without any warning and knocked me down to the bottom of the steps. "The spikes tore through my jumper and cut my back as I went flying. I was all bloody but managed to press the emergency alarm I wear on my arm. "The emergency people were very good. They first called the house, but of course I wasn't there and then called my daughter Angela, who said she was on the way here. "I don't know how, I still don't, but I somehow managed to stagger back home and that's where Angela found me. "She took me straight round to the A&E at the hospital and they patched me up. Once I found my heart and blood pressure were all right I wasn't too worried but I looked a mess." Mrs Smith's family contacted the county council. She said: "They came round and tried to stand the railings up with some kind of sticky tape but that didn't work. "Then they took them away, it took three men to lift them. They put up some plastic fencing but that went missing shortly afterwards. "They then came back and put a few sandbags around the gap. "They should close the path off or at least put up danger warning signs. "The row of railings is very old and is rusty and loose. A lot of it is just held up by a high hedge but around the steps it's open and they wobble. "I won't use those steps any more and instead have to walk all the way to the end of the road where the path and road meet. "I have complained about these railings for ever. It was about 20 years ago that I complained because I was worried about the children. "I said then that I expected nothing would be done until something terrible happened. "I didn't realise that it would happen to me! "I am just so lucky I have a wonderful family to rally round and help me. What I would have done if I was on my own I don't know."
