BUSINESSMAN Martin Wild believes an accident which closed a main road near Devizes for four hours and left two men badly injured might have been avoided if Wiltshire Council had not ordered him to remove warning signs.

Mr Wild, who runs MDN Shot Blasting on the A361 near Bishops Cannings, said: "I was worried about the danger when people turn into the yard and so I created metal signs to put on the road in both directions to act as a warning.

"But just a few days after I put them up I was ordered to take them down or face a £10,000 fine. I knew this was an accident waiting to happen."

His worst fears came true last Thursday lunchtime when Philip Hill, 46, from Devizes, who runs his own business on the same site as Mr Wild, had stopped in the road waiting to turn right.

His Mitsubishi L200 was struck by a Lexus IS200 travelling from the Marlborough direction which then caught fire. The 43-year-old driver of the Lexus was airlifted to Southmead Hospital, Bristol with serious leg injuries.

Mr Hill also badly hurt his leg and has been warned it could be months before he can return to work as an agricultural contractor.

Mr Wild said: "There have been a lot of accidents on this stretch of road. It is straight but some people go too fast. I was worried about people stopping to turn into our place and decided to create the signs. They are proper metal signs and I put them either side of the entrance to act as a warning.

"But I was told they were not authorised by the council and so they had to go but I was also told the council did not have any money to put up signs itself. It is madness."

After the accident happened just after 1pm on Thursday Mr Wild went out into the road to help. He said: "I was worried my friend was still in his car and as the other car was on fire I wanted to try and get him out but it then turned out he had already been removed.

"I used my forklift to move the cars from the middle of the road."

A Wiltshire Council spokesman said: "We understand Mr Wild’s concerns, however, only authorised signs are legally allowed on the highway. The most effective way to raise concerns such as this is at the Community Area Transport Group of the local area board where such highways issues are discussed and funding is available to effect change where appropriate."

Wiltshire Police are appealing for witnesses to the crash. A spokesman said the road was closed for nearly four hours while the scene was cleared.

PC Will Ayres, of the Roads Policing Unit, said: "We would like to appeal to anyone who witnessed the collision, who has not already spoken to police, to contact us.

"We are particularly keen to hear from anyone who may have been walking in the area around the time, or anyone who witnessed any pedestrians in the area of Baltic Farm at the time of the collision."

Anyone with information should call the Roads Policing Unit on 101, or Crimestoppers anonymously via 0800 555 111.