A YOUNG woman who was catastrophically injured in a horrific road smash is in line for huge compensation.

It comes after a judge described as “baffling” claims that Georgina Cotterill was partially responsible for her own misfortune.

Georgina, then aged 20 who worked as an administrator for a pension fund, was said to have slept rough in a car with her friend, Jennifer Tilley, on the night of September 1, 2006, after being on Bournemouth beach before heading home in the morning.

Miss Tilley was killed when she lost control of her blue Peugeot on a bend of the A338 between Ringwood and Fordingbridge, and crashed into an oncoming car.

Her front-seat passenger, Miss Cotterill, who worked for an insurance arm of Santander, suffered a "traumatic brain injury" and was in a coma for a fortnight.

Now aged 27, the accident victim, who lives in Salisbury, sued Miss Tilley's estate, claiming she was negligent, and motor insurers agreed at an early stage that there was “some negligence on her part”.

However, they also claimed that Miss Cotterill was in part the author of her own misfortune in getting into the car with her friend when she “ought to have known”

that Miss Tilley “had an impaired ability to drive”.

Judge William Birtles, sitting at London's High Court, described those allegations of contributory negligence as “absolutely baffling” and approved in principle a settlement of Miss Cotterill's claim.

Although the exact terms of the deal have yet to be finalised, the court heard Miss Cotterill will receive a substantial lump sum, plus index-linked, tax-free, annual payments to cover the costs of the care and support she will need for life.

Her counsel, Richard Cartwright, told the judge that, while she had made a good recovery from her “significant injuries”, she had been left with “permanent difficulties in terms of cognitive function, headaches, fatigue and problems controlling her emotions”.

Miss Cotterill and her family, who attended court, declined to comment afterwards.

Her solicitor, Alison Goldney said: “The settlement will provide Georgina with the ongoing care and rehabilitation she needs. Her injuries mean that her future prospects are now uncertain.”

Although the sums of money involved in the settlement have been kept confidential, millions of pounds are routinely awarded by the courts in cases of such serious injury