A FATHER who was involved in a bloody car accident outside his Iron Acton home has successfully campaigned for a reduction in the speed limit.

Mark Curtis, 38, was driving home from work as a financial adviser in Yate when he slowed down to turn right into the driveway of his family farm, Poplar Farm, on the B4058.

The driver behind him was distracted and crashed into the back of Mr Curtis’ car, shunting him into the path of another vehicle.

"I knew it was too late and the car behind wasn’t going to stop," said Mr Curtis, whose pregnant wife Katie, 35, and the couple’s two-year-old son Oliver were in another car a minute behind.

"I just closed my eyes and the next thing I knew I was facing the wrong way on the other side of the road with the airbags out and I put my hands to my face and felt blood."

The female motorist he inadvertently drove into was taken to hospital for minor injuries and Mr Curtis was treated at the scene for cuts and bruises. He has been back to hospital three times for whiplash following the incident, which happened three weeks ago.

"It could have been a lot worse and I know I am very lucky," he said.

Mr Curtis attended last week’s Frome Vale Area Forum where he described the accident and councillors agreed to fund a £21,000 scheme to reduce the speed limit on the B4058 from 50mph to 40mph.

Two other projects were also approved from £50,000 made available through South Gloucestershire Council’s capital transport budget, to review the speed limit on the A46 at Petty France, where one person has died since January 2008, and to reduce the limit on the A432 between Smarts Green and Commonmead Lane in Chipping Sodbury, where there have been three fatalities in three years including 65-year-old charity fundraiser David Warren, from Old Sodbury.

Welcoming the changes, Cllr Dave Hockey (Lib Dem, Frampton Cotterell) said: "It has long seemed ridiculous that the speed has been restricted on the straight portion of the B4058 but not where the houses are, where people need to turn in and out of their drives. I am delighted we have now been able to put this right."