Margaret Charlotte didn't have to go with her granddaughter to a hospital appointment. Her act of kindness cost her her life.

A short while later, their car was involved in a horrific crash with a lorry travelling on the wrong side of the road.

Mrs Charlotte, who was travelling in the back seat of daughter Michaela Bagley's car with granddaughter Yasmin, three, suffered multiple injuries.

Mrs Charlotte, 55, a home carer from Nickelsfield, near Loxwood, died a month later from a brain haemorrhage.

The close-knit trio had been in a happy mood earlier as they set off on October 2 last year.

Mrs Charlotte kept her only grandchild entertained with tales of how their Yorkshire terrier was scared of the rain when it was a puppy.

As they slowed down near the railway bridge in Hardham, near Pulborough, a white lorry loomed into view, heading straight towards them.

The truck, driven by Barry Jillett, went over the bridge, crossed on to the wrong side of the road and crashed head-on into Mrs Bagley's Rover car.

Mrs Bagley, 36, of Daux Avenue, Billingshurst, said: "The death of my mother left my family devastated. She was not only my mother but my closest friend and she supported me and my family in every way.

"She was a strong woman who lived for her family. Now she is gone I feel like everything is an act. My family's life has been ruined because of someone who drove a 17-tonne lorry on the wrong side of the road in heavy traffic."

On the morning of the crash, Mrs Bagley had told her mother it was not necessary for her to go with them to the hospital. But Mrs Charlotte had insisted.

Mrs Bagley said: "I approached the bridge and saw the lorry heading straight for us. It wasn't breaking or skidding, it just kept coming at us. I saw the lorry driver had his hand raised to his face.

"Initially I thought he had a mobile phone in his hand. Yasmin screamed and I heard this huge bang. I still get a headache when I think about it now. I then thought 'what's that smell?' and it was the airbag.

"I could hardly breathe and thought 'God, I'm still alive'. The next thing I knew people were looking into the car and trying to get my little girl out.

"I looked round to ask if mum was okay because she was very quiet.

"Her face was white and she whispered 'no'. I remember her being stretchered on to an ambulance with an oxygen mask on."

Mrs Bagley was trapped behind the wheel for more than two hours as firefighters battled to free her.

She felt pain in her chest and looked down to see her arm badly broken. Her feet were caught underneath the pedals. When the agony became too much, she was given pain relief.

When Mrs Bagley arrived at St Richards Hospital, Chichester, she was put in the bed next to her mother. The last words she heard her say were "How's my daughter?"

Mrs Charlotte was put on a life support machine and transferred to intensive care.

Mrs Bagley was moved on to a ward and had a metal plate fitted in her left arm. Three days later she was well enough to visit her mother in another ward.

She said: "Her face was blown right up. Her eyes were staring and red. She didn't look like my mum. It was devastating to see her that way. I felt so helpless."

Mrs Bagley and her husband Andy, 38, spent every day during the next month willing her to live while fearing the worst.

She said: "She had a metal neck support bolted to her head and neck and couldn't talk.

"The undertaker would often visit the ward to pick up other patients who had died. I would hear the zip of the black bag and think, 'Oh no, not that for my mother'."

Yet the day before Mrs Charlotte died, she showed a last glimmer of life. She smiled at her daughter and mouthed the words: "What happened?"

The following morning she died.

A couple of weeks after the crash, Mrs Bagley rang Jillett's former employers, Paul Matthew Transport Ltd in Ferry Road, Littlehampton, and asked if he was still driving.

She said: "I wanted to tell them about my mum. But I was told 'accidents happen, the same thing could happen to my wife.' When I heard he was still driving I felt very hurt."

Mr Jillett, 33, of Ophir Road, Worthing, who no longer works for the firm, was originally charged with dangerous driving and could have faced a prison sentence if found guilty.

But the lesser charge of careless driving was substituted five months after the crash.

Mrs Bagley said: "I agree that accidents happen on the road.

"But Jillett provided no real explanation about why he failed to control his vehicle or decided to drive on the wrong side of the road. If you are a lorry driver, you should be more careful."

Mrs Bagley and her mother had been very close.

When Yasmin was born, Mrs Charlotte was overjoyed. Mrs Bagley had four miscarriages before having Yasmin but Mrs Charlotte was there for her daughter throughout.

Mrs Bagley said: "During my fifth pregnancy, with Yasmin, my mother would pick me up each day and take me to her house in Loxwood.

"I had to have Yasmin by Caesarean section and she was there with me. Yasmin was born in the same hospital my mother died in."

Mrs Charlotte would look after Yasmin while her daughter worked weekends at a doctor's surgery.

Mrs Bagley said: "My mother doted on Yasmin. She talked about her all the time and was always at our house."

Mrs Charlotte's husband William moved out of the family home of 23 years because he could not bear to live there without her.

On the day of Mrs Charlotte's funeral, her own mother, Phyllis McPhee, was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

The metal plate in Mrs Bagley's arm means she can no longer lift Yasmin or bathe her. Yasmin still has nightmares and does not sleep properly.

Mrs Bagley said: "The effect on my young daughter as a passenger in a sudden violent crash causing the death of a dear loved grandmother will be forever.

"All we have left now are memories of my mother.

"To call such driving only careless is an insult to my mother's memory and to all her family."