Safety campaigner is knocked down by car in Telford

"I've been saying it was only a matter of time before someone got hurt – I didn't expect it to be me," said Thomas Roberts, 53, after he was knocked down on Calcutts Road in Jackfield, Telford.

He was petitioning for a hole on Ironbridge Road to be filled in so a diversion which is sending traffic to Ironbridge down Calcutts Road could be closed.

Mr Roberts said: "I was walking past a grassy verge because there was no pathway and a car was coming down quite slowly.

"I looked and thought, bless her, she's slowing down for me.

"Then all of a sudden this other car came screeching around her and cut in front of her.

"Then she accelerated at great speed and came at me, hitting me with the wing mirror and knocking me to the ground.

"The other car was nowhere to be seen but the lady's car went through a garden and flattened a pergola and a fence and knocked concrete off this man's steps.

"How the car didn't tip over God only knows, but she told me her foot had hit the accelerator instead of the brake when the car cut in front of her."

Mr Roberts, a singer, who lives in Lloyds Head, Jackfield, was taken to the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford with suspected broken ribs but an x-ray confirmed they were just badly bruised.

"I'm a bit sore and shaken but I'm more livid than anything.

"I've been telling Telford & Wrekin Council for weeks how dangerous it was to have the traffic from Ironbridge Road coming down through the village.

"It's been going on since the hole opened up on Boxing Day.

"But I'm not getting any answers. They say it could be months.

"It's so dangerous it's only a matter of time before someone is killed. When I was hit I was collecting signatures for the hole to be repaired as soon as possible."

Bernard Minton, whose front garden on Calcutts Road, was damaged by the car, said: "The traffic is double since that big hole.

"There was an accident this week in which two surveyors on my lawn were hit by a car.

"I was out in my pick-up at the time. The car went through the fence and through the next door neighbour's fence. It's murder, the traffic is."

Neal Rushton, structures and geotechnics group manager for Telford & Wrekin Council, said: "The traffic lights on Coalford, which is part of the diversion route, were installed after discussions with local residents.

"These are to try to reduce the speed of traffic through the narrow section of the road.

"This is not a mine shaft collapse which would have been much easier to fix, instead it is a collapse of mine workings which means that the hole is getting bigger from the bottom up and is much more complicated to fix.

"We have a plan for how this can be fixed but the road will remain closed until remedial works are complete which may still be some time off."