The sister of a young nurse crushed by a lorry says the family has yet to come to terms with her death and feel as though she is “just out at work”.

Maria Karsa, from Mildmay Road, Newington Green, was buried on Tuesday after a collision with a truck in Aldgate in which she was dragged along under its wheels.

The “playful and innocent” 21-year-old spent a week on life support after the accident on September 15 before dying on Sunday at the Royal London Hospital – the same hospital she was due to work a shift at on the day of the incident.

Night shift

But even following the well-attended funeral and wake this week, Ms Karsa’s sister Athena says the tragic news still hasn’t sunk in.

She said: “It’s like she’s gone but we haven’t properly noticed yet. I am used to ­being at university and not seeing her all the time. And she would often be out with friends or her boyfriend, so it’s the same for my mum.

“They would often keep missing each other for a week even though they live together.

“It just feels like she is at work, on a night shift.

“We are just trying to keep ourselves busy.”

Anthea, 19, was just about to start a degree in theoretical physics in Manchester when she heard what had happened.

“I had just had a meeting with my tutor and I got the train straight down here.

“Now we have had the funeral I’ll go back – I’m already behind.

“Initially we wanted it to be a small family thing, but because so many people wanted to come, it ended up being quite large – too many people for me to talk to them all anyway.

“For the wake we didn’t want everyone to just come back to the house and be miserable so we all went to the Vineyard, in Upper Street, then on to another bar. It was a good do.

“Maria was a bit like a child – so very playful and innocent. She wasn’t bothered by anything, nothing phased her and she was so easy going. She just got on with everybody – there wasn’t a single person who had a bad word to say about her. It’s normal to make at least some enemies at some point, but there was nobody in her life who didn’t like her.”

The death has reawakened calls for better safety for cyclists on the capital’s roads . Miss Karsa is the eighth cyclist to die this year. Last month, popular Islington GP Dr Clive Richards died in a similar incident involving a lorry in Archway Road.