A Marsascala woman almost lost her eye last Friday when she tripped over rubble left in front of her home by workmen.

Mary Rose Hili, 59, said the pavement in front of her house in Triq il-Ħortan was normal when she left for work in the morning.

However, when she returned at about 3pm she found it had been dug up by workmen contracted by the council to replace pavements in the area.

Ms Hili said she left the house again to run errands at 4pm and the accident occurred when she got back half an hour later and tried to step across the rubble.

“I went flying through the air and sma­shed my head on the wall,” she recalled.

The contractors had stopped work for the weekend but had neglected to cover the dug-up pavement in front of Ms Hili’s home with temporary boards, forcing her to step across uneven rocks to enter her residence.

“Thanks God one of my neighbours saw me fall,” said Ms Hili, who lives alone.

“She was calling out to me but I was in too much pain or shock to respond.”

Ms Hili’s neighbour took her to the Paola health centre, where stitches were applied close to her left eye.

The bruising was so bad that she was unable to open it until Monday.

“It was very serious and scary. There was blood everywhere and the doctor told me I could have lost my eye if I’d fallen slightly differently,” Ms Hili said.

Ms Hili’s son, Kurt, visited her the next morning and, shocked by the extent of her injuries, took her to the council office, where an employee phoned the mayor on their behalf.

According to both Ms Hili and her son, the mayor said they should have informed the council about the problem before the accident.

After he was told that they planned to go to the police, the mayor advised them that it was not a police matter.

Undeterred, Ms Hili and her son reported the incident to the Żabbar police that same day, who said they would investigate and take the appropriate action against the contractor.

Ms Hili said that when she spoke again to the mayor via telephone on Monday and in person on Tuesday, he was much more helpful.

The mayor said yesterday that he sympathised with Ms Hili.

However, he did not wish to comment any further once the police were investigating the incident.

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