A woman has spoken out about how she lost her forehead and two teeth in a car crash after resting her feet on the dashboard of her boyfriend's car.
Grainne Kealy's knees were sent flying into her face when the airbags inflated at 200 MPH, when the jeep she was travelling in skidded on black ice and hit wall near Laois in Ireland.
When the then 22-year-old woke up a week later, she thought someone else was looking back at her in the mirror, and her "life was turned upside down."
Grainne had broken every bone in her face, suffered a brain injury and had to have her forehead surgically removed. Her boyfriend only sustained minor injuries.
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"I remember looking in the mirror for the first time and it was horrific," she said when speaking to the Irish Independent. "My mother wouldn't allow any pictures to be taken of how I looked straight after the accident and I'm glad because I couldn't imagine at that time how I could've looked any worse."
The accident, which happened on December 16th 2006, occurred because Grainne had put her feet on the dashboard to be "more comfortable".
"It was something I rarely did and only did that morning as I had bought a new pair of Ugg boots and knew that I wouldn’t dirty the dashboard. Silly when you think about it. I have no memory of the accident, the three months leading up to it or the month following it."
She was eventually fitted with a ceramic forehead in 2009.
Two years ago, Grainne finally felt ready to share her story, and issued a plea for people to not make the costly mistake she did.
