ONE minute she was in her friend's car, the next she was violently thrown forward and pieces of shattered glass were flying all over.

They cut the face, hands, neck and legs of singer-actress Foyce Le.

Le, 31, was on her way to her newly-opened restaurant, Lush, with a friend when their car crashed head-on with another car.

The accident, which happened three weeks ago near Clarke Quay, left her shaken.

Said Le, who was in the passenger seat of the sports car driven by her friend: "It happened so fast that I was in total shock.

"The pain on my face was so acute I thought I was going to pass out."

She and the friend were on their way to the restaurant at Beach Road, which she co-owns with a business partner, to discuss a business venture.

Her friend escaped unhurt. The two managed to stumble out of the wrecked car, which had its windscreen shattered, and take a taxi to Gleneagles Hospital, said Le.

According to her, the driver of the other car had cuts on his body, and his vehicle was also smashed.

At the hospital, Le said she discovered her injuries were more severe than she originally thought. Her right cheekbone was fractured, so she had to undergo surgery.

The operation lasted more than an hour. Le said she had to have a metal plate and screws inserted through incisions in her mouth and lower eyelids.

30 cuts

She also suffered more than 30 cuts on her face, hands, neck and legs, she said.

Le said she was prescribed antibiotics, painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs.

But she is worried about the scars on her face.

She had hoped that as her face healed, the scabs would fall off, revealing new skin.

But two weeks after the accident, there are small depressions on her face, she said.

She added: "I was so distraught that I haven't allowed any of my friends to visit me."

Scars aside, Le's right cheek is still swollen.

She said she would go for whatever aesthetic procedures necessary to regain her looks, whatever the cost.

Le said she has been told by her doctors that she cannot wear make-up for the next few months to ensure a speedy recovery.

Dr Georgia Lee, an aesthetic doctor who is the director of TLC Lifestyle Practice, told The New Paper: "For depressed scars, 100 per cent healing may not be possible with current technology." But treatments that are available will yield good results over time.

"For example, subcision, which is the undercutting of scar tissue, can cost $20 to $50 per scar, depending on its size and the technical difficulty."

She added that five to six Mosaic laser treatments, which help to regenerate the cells beneath the scar and are done after subcision, done over six to seven months will reduce the scars by 50 per cent.

The treatments cost $800 to $1,000 each.

This is not the first car accident that Le has been in.

In 2007, she was also in a friend's car when it skidded and crashed. (See report below.)

Last month's mishap came at a particularly bad time for Le, as Lush, which serves Italian food and specialises in wine, had opened just a week before.

She was supposed to have pictures of herself taken to be used in advertisements and in the menu. Le lamented: "How do you expect me to take pictures of myself now?

"I've been so depressed about this because I was going to handle all the marketing for the restaurant in the last few weeks.

"They will have to be put on hold till I recover."

Injuries from previous crash took two years to heal

FOYCE Le's previous road accident happened when the car she was in skidded and spun twice on a road made slippery by heavy rain.

She suffered a haematoma in her left eye and burnt facial skin.

A haematoma is a solid swelling of clotted blood within the tissues.

The similarities of that accident in 2007 to her recent car crash are uncanny.

Then, she was also in the passenger's seat of a red sports car.

But that car belonged to a male acquaintance that she had met at an event which ended at 5am. Her friend, who knew the driver, had asked him to send her home.

The accident then occurred in the opposite direction from her recent mishap - the car was travelling from Clarke Quay to Tampines.

When the car skidded to a halt near Tampines, Le released her seat belt so that she could exit the vehicle.

Before she could open the door, a taxi that had failed to spot the stationary car in time came from behind and crashed into it.

Three other taxis followed suit and the result was a five-car pile-up.

Needless to say, Le was shell-shocked and panicked when she realised that smoke was coming out of the car she was in.

Both Le and the driver managed to get out of the car and took a taxi to hospital.

Le said she spent more than $10,000 on surgery, including Botox injections and fillers so that the dent on her brow bone - which she had hit on the dashboard upon impact - could be filled out.

She added that she had claimed an amount-which she declined to disclose - as compensation from the male acquaintance's insurance company.

Said Le: "My eye and face injuries took two years to heal completely."

View photos here.

This article was first published in The New Paper.