A KEEN cyclist who nearly lost his life following a collision with an overtaking car is urging Somerset County Council to help make a key road near Bridgwater safer.

Greg Howe, who lives at Andersea, had his life turned upside down one evening last November when he was cycling home from his job at Hinkley B.

He was cycling in high-vis gear but as he went to turn right for the T-junction for Andersea on the A372 Westonzoyland Road, he was struck by a car overtaking another car and thrown from his bike.

In the collision, Greg suffered a broken back in four places, injuries to his neck and shoulder and still struggles with short term memory loss. He was airlifted to hospital and remained in intensive care for four days.

Although the crash never came to a prosecution, Greg says he has made it his mission to make the A372 Westonzoyland Road safer, and is calling on Somerset County Council to introduce a 50mph speed limit along the road, put in double white lines by the T-junction to Andersea and bigger, clearer signs by the T-junction itself.

“A lot of drivers see the national speed limit signs as open season and automatically put their foot down,” Mr Howe said.

"Ask any villager and they will tell you it is a dangerous road - there have been a number of serious crashes along this stretch including several fatalities over the years.

“It has been a long recovery process for me, and now my focus is I want that road changed so that no-one else should have to go through what I have been through over the last 12 months.”

Mr Howe said the team at Hinkley B had been incredibly supportive in helping him back to work.

Somerset County Council says that while it sympathised with Mr Howe’s situation, there were other roads which were a higher priority.

An SCC spokesman said: “We are very sorry to hear about Mr Howe’s accident and thank him for raising concerns about road safety on the A372. We do closely monitor injury collision data provided by the police and use this to prioritise areas for treatment.

“However, we would usually assess the most recent five years of data, as road layouts, engineering and traffic flows can all change.

“We did carry out some route treatment work, which has reduced the number of injury collisions, especially fatal ones.

"The data shows there have been no fatal collisions on the A372 between Bridgwater and Westonzoyland since 2007.

“There were five serious injury collisions reported in 2017 but none between 2011 and 2016 and none up to August in 2018.

“Based on this evidence, we will continue to monitor the location carefully but there are other locations which are currently a higher priority for remedial work.”