A furious grandmother is demanding the county council remove “unnecessary” paving stones which left her with severe facial injuries and a broken wrist.

Susan Turnock, 55, from Maple Cross, suffered the horrific injuries using a pedestrian crossing at the junction of Whippendell Road and Queens Avenue.

As she returned home from watching Watford FC lose to Blackpool on Saturday, November 1, Susan tripped on the corner of one of the raised granite slabs smashing her head on the concrete and breaking her wrist in the resulting fall.

The impact of the blow forced the metal frame of Mrs Turnock’s glasses into her face, splitting her nose and causing heavy bruising and swelling around her eyes.

Susan, a season ticket holder at Vicarage Road, said: “My injuries are bad enough but if someone very old or very young had fallen it could have been much worse.

“I will be forever grateful to the man who stopped and helped me. I don’t know who he was, but he and the A&E department at Watford General were absolutely fantastic.”

Doctors have advised Susan to take at least six weeks off work to recover from her injuries. The terms of her insurance policy mean that one of those weeks will go unpaid.

The teary eyed grandmother said the worst part of the accident, however, was not being able to hold her newborn grandchild.

She said: “I have a gorgeous three-week-old granddaughter, Emily. It is terrible looking at her knowing I am not able to hold her.

“My two-year-old grandchild was so frightened of me when she saw my injuries that she didn’t want to come near me. That was very upsetting”.

Her husband Peter added: “When I first saw Susan after the accident I thought she had been mugged or beaten up.

“I work in road construction and we are always warned about leaving anything that could trip people up, so I don’t know what they were thinking when they designed this thing.”

The saw-shaped paving slabs - referred to as pedestrian deterrent paving - are designed to prevent pedestrians from crossing at unsafe points in the road.

Roadside railings - which serve the same purpose - were installed in June, however, making the slabs unnecessary.

Hertfordshire County Councillor, Nigel Bell, has been campaigning to have the blocks removed for months.

Councillor Bell said: “Since the roadside railings were put in place I have been asking the Highway Authority to have these things removed. I have received complaints about them in the past and now this has happened.”

Hertfordshire County Council declined to comment on the story as a compensation claim could yet be submitted.

Jo Brown, from the county council, said: “We understand that a compensation claim is going to be submitted in relation to this incident, so we cannot comment at the present time."