A MAN was hit by a car as he tried to warn a farmer his sheep were in the road.

The 60-year-old, who was driving on the A682 between Nelson and Gisburn with his wife, had pulled over to raise the alarm.

As the man was making his way back to his car, he was hit by a Toyota Yaris, police said.

He mounted the bonnet and hit the windscreen, suffering serious head injuries.

An air ambulance was called and landed in a nearby field before airlifting the man to Royal Preston Hospital.

The road, one of the most dangerous in East Lancashire, was closed for around three hours following the incident near Stocks Lane, close to Little Middop Farm in Burnley Road, at 12.30pm yesterday.

A woman out walking nearby said: “I didn’t see it happen, I just know that there was a crowd gathered and someone called the ambulance. People had stopped their cars while the air ambulance came.

"A friend of mine offered to help but was told it was OK. Apparently his wife was there too, he had got out of their car because there was a sheep in the road.”

A number of people in the area said there was a need for traffic calming on the road, which has a national speed limit.

Resident Darren Reynolds, a former Burnley councillor, said: “It’s shocking. Most years somebody dies on that road.

“It’s high time that the local authority implement an effective scheme to reduce the number of accidents, because we as residents are fed up of the sickening injuries that happen to people on the road and it needs to stop.”

Gisburn councillor Richard Sherras said: “It’s not a very good place. If I was walking around that area I would be very wary of traffic.

“There are signs on the road and I think it says ‘slow’ on the road, but it’s especially bad near Little Middop Farm.”