A collision between a roadsweeper and a van was the second time a member of the same family has been involved in a serious crash with a Hyndburn Council vehicle.

Both vehicles were heading in the same direction when the incident happened in Harwood Road, Great Harwood, at 10.20am yesterday.

Police said the transit van had run into the back of the three-ton £70,000 Hyndburn Council roadsweeper, which had been in a dip in the 60mph road, just after a sharp corner.

The front end of the van was crushed and driver Peter Eastwood, 39, lost some of his teeth in the impact and had to be cut out of the wreckage.

He was taken to hospital with suspected spinal injuries.

Mick Daley, the 41-year-old driver of the roadsweeper, was also taken by ambulance to hospital suffering from back injuries, with paramedics moving him via a spinal board.

In May 2007, Mr Eastwood’s mother Jean Eastwood, 66, died after being hit by a reversing bin wagon on a different stretch of Harwood Road, closer to Rishton.

Mr Eastwood said: “I came round the corner and this roadsweeper was right there, doing 5mph on a 60mph road.

“What was it doing there? I tried to swerve to avoid it but I couldn’t.

“This has brought everything back from when my mum died.

"I lost everything after that, my job, my house.

“Hyndburn Council has ruined my life again. Now I have no van for work.

“This was a genuine accident. I’ve not done it on purpose.

"I just couldn’t avoid it but I think there should have been cones or warnings on a road like that.”

Mr Eastwood’s mother Jean, a retired care worker, died on her way to the Post Office after being struck by the wagon which was reversing into an alley behind Norden Court from Harwood Road.

After an inquest ruled accidental death, the Hyndburn Council driver Kevin Michael Slattery was cleared of driving without due care and attention in June 2008.