COLLEAGUES of a student crushed by a runaway council van spoke of their relief yesterday after her condition improved.

Ursula Billington was left fighting for her life after she was pinned against a wall by the van as it rolled down a steep and narrow cobbled street in Durham, on Thursday night.

The 18-year-old had only been in the region for a few days after starting a psychology course at the city's university.

Her distraught parents, Arthur and Penny, were last night still keeping a vigil at their daughter's bedside.

Her condition was described by staff at Durham's University Hospital yesterday as having improved from critical to "serious but comfortable".

A university spokesman said: "The word from the hospital is quite encouraging and there is generally a sense of relief that she is making good progress."

The accident happened at about 6.30pm on Thursday, after Ursula and other undergraduates left their first lecture.

As the group walked down Owengate from Palace Green, near the city's cathedral, a 28-year-old Durham City Council worker parked his van, while he locked the nearby public toilets.

The unattended white Ford Transit van then rolled 30 yards down the hill into the path of the students and pinned Miss Billington against a wall.

She took the full force of the impact. A 19-year-old woman walking next to her escaped with minor injuries.

Ursula's fellow students, who were shocked by the accident, have deluged the hospital with flowers and cards, including a giant one signed by about 100 people.

"The response from the students has been full of good will and her friends would dearly love to visit her if they could, but it is too early for that," the spokesman said.

The university has also provided temporary accommodation for her parents so they can remain close to the hospital.

Ursula, a keen musician, is well known on the East Midlands music scene.

Going under the stage name Weil Influenze, she plays bass with up-and-coming indie band, Spiral, and performs with the Shenanigans Ceilidh Band. She also plays the fiddle alongside her parents, in a blues outfit called the Piranha Band.