A PASSENGER seriously injured in a company car when the driver collided with an oncoming vehicle while talking on a mobile phone will lobby MPs next week for phone use in cars to be banned.

Susan Penney, of Grimsby, was seriously injured in the accident and is permanently off work, while her driver – and boss - was slightly injured. The driver of the other car was killed.

Penney successfully sued her employer for a 'substantial six figure sum' following the accident in 1998 and the driver, who was taking them to a business meeting, was jailed for a year.

A court heard the driver had been talking on her hand-held mobile phone to her boyfriend to arrange a date, when she had approached a bend on the wrong side of the road, hitting an on-coming car head-on.

Since the accident, Penney has launched a campaign to ban use of mobile phones in cars and has arranged with road safety organisation Brake to meet with MP Janet Anderson next Tuesday.