At 18, Amie McCann had her whole life in front of her.

She was studying in health and social care and had ambitions to become a mental health nurse.

But in the early hours one morning in August last year, Ms McCann's universe turned upside as she went to cross the A737 near Beith with her male friend.

She was struck by an Mazda 3 she had not seen, suffering severe brain injuries.

Now five months later, she says she is lucky to be alive, is recuperating in the specialist neuro rehabilitation wing of Ayrshire Central Hospital, and has begun a personal crusade, to ensure accidents like that never happen again.

Two weeks later a 22-year-old man died after he was struck by a black Mitsubishi Coupe on the same stretch of road early hours of the morning. The driver of the car was taken to hospital with minor injuries to his arm and was released.

There were a total of 24 road traffic collisions around the Beith bypass stretch of the A737 between July 2011 and June 2014 - three of them classed as 'serious'.

One of those was in February, 2009, when a 16-year-old from Paisley died after being struck by a car.

Ms McCann, from Kilbirni, believes that street lights on the stretch would have prevented her accident and also believes a reduction in speed limit to 30mph is required.

She has also suggested barriers at the sides of the road in correspondence with government agency, Transport Scotland.

"I am doing this so that people don't go through what I went through because I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy," she said.

"There is no lighting on the road and it goes from 30mph to 50mph to 30mph and it would be good to get a speed reduction.

"I was very lucky I survived it. There was a chance I would have died. I was in a critical condition.

"I had a very bad head injury, I had a clot in my brain. I had brain surgery and was in an induced coma.

"Because I broke my pelvis, I am unable to walk.

"I broke my left arm and I have a plate in that but the nerve is damaged so I can't use my arm no feeling. I fractured my neck and that's why I had to be in a halo brace.

"I am just learning to stand. I am in a lot of pain, still.

"I'm going to get better, I just don't want other people to feel the way I do and that's why I am so strongly determined to get something done about that area in Beith, that dark road, that many people have walked down just to get home."

Next week she is expected to have an operation to take a nerve in her foot to transplant into her arm, to give her slight movement.

"I remember being so scared, as it was so dark. I didn't know it was by a bypass," she said. "I remember crying down the phone to my friend, and remember being petrified before walking down the road.

"I would never walk down the road, but I couldn't get home, there were no taxis and nobody could pick me up."

"With lights they could have swerved or I would have seen the car."

The collision took place at around 5am near to the A737's junction with Threepwood Road.

She was taken by ambulance to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley then later transferred to the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow.

Her friend and the male driver of the vehicle were badly shaken.

A Transport Scotland spokesman said: "The safety of our trunk roads is extremely important and as part of our national programme of road safety improvements, we are proposing a range of measures on the Beith Bypass to improve safety.

"New signing, lining and vegetation clearance will be carried out in the coming months."