PARENTS of a teenager who suffered horrific injuries in a car accident were yesterday left with nothing after gambling a £400,000 legal settlement - they lost a court battle to get it increased.

Annona James was left severely disabled after being hit by a car on a busy Teesside road when she was eight.

In March last year, a High Court judge dismissed her claim for damages and ruled that Stuart Fairley - the motorist who hit her - was not to blame for the accident.

Yesterday, two Appeal Court judges backed that decision and refused Miss James, 19, any compensation.

After the ruling had been made, they heard how Mr Fairley's insurers had made an offer of £400,000 to settle the case, but this had been turned down in the hope of winning much higher compensation.

That money, which was paid into court, will now be returned to them.

Yesterday, Lord Justice Ward said he was greatly saddened by the case, but told Miss James's counsel, Robin de Wilde: "You win some, you lose some, I suppose. But it's pretty tough."

Describing the "horrid accident", the judge said Miss James, who lives in Middlesbrough but was living in Stockton at the time of the accident, had been walking along Yarm Road, Stockton, with her brother and a young friend on March 7, 1990, when she strayed into the road.

He said Mr Fairley, of Agricola Cottages, Newby, Middlesbrough, had only 1.7 seconds to avoid her and could not be blamed for the accident.

Although Mr Fairley slammed on the brakes, he struck the youngster, throwing her into the air.

He did not know what had happened and only realised he had hit a child when he got out of his car.

Witnesses who saw the accident had the impression that he had hit "a black bag rolling in front of the oncoming car".

Lord Justice Ward said he had the greatest sympathy for Miss James - who suffered limb, spinal and brain injuries and whose father, Mervyne, gave up his job as a taxi driver to care for her.

But, he added: "The unfortunate fact seems to be that she stepped into his path without giving him time to avoid hitting her.

"Annona had gone into the road when her two companions wisely and safely stayed on the pavement. The motorist cannot be held responsible for the sad consequences which followed.

"Sorry as I am for Annona and her family, I am satisfied that the appeal must be dismissed."

Lord Justice Longmore said he, too, had deep sympathy for Miss James.

But he said he was reluctantly compelled to find that there was no basis on which Mr Fairley could have been blamed for the accident.

Annona fought back from the brink of death after the crash, which left her with injuries similar to those suffered by Superman actor Christopher Reeve.

Surgeons gave her little chance of survival after the accident left her paralysed and unable to breath without a life-support machine.

But she amazed the medical world after an emergency pioneering operation by neuro surgeons at Middlesbrough General Hospital to clear a spine and brain stem clot