A crash which left a man in hospital after his car flipped over has prompted a call for lower speed limits across Kensington and Chelsea.

People living near the junction of St Marks Road and Bassett Road in North Kensington thought a bomb had exploded at 10.35pm on Friday (January 23) when two cars crashed causing one to flip onto its roof.

London Ambulance Service took a man in his 20s with neck and head pain to St Mary’s Hospital after sending a number of paramedics to the scene.

Residents have launched a petition urging Kensington and Chelsea Council to implement a 20mph speed limit on all borough controlled roads.

Previous calls by the opposition Labour Party to make the area a 20mph zone were quashed by Kensington and Chelsea’s Conservative council who is not convinced a lower speed limit is necessary but Labour has used Friday’s accident to revive the call.

There have been a number of crashes into the St Marks Road roundabout, in nearby North Pole Road a pedestrian was killed after being hit by a car in late 2013 and St Quintin’s Avenue junction has also become an accident hotspot.

The St Marks Road roundabout suffered a severe dent in April 2014

Mohammed Bakhtiar, Labour councillor for St Helen’s ward where St Mark’s Road is, said: “Roads should be safe enough for children to walk to school, but drivers do not slow down at crossings to let them cross. Must we wait for a child to die before making our roads safer?”

The council has argued that police data shows in the last three years up to September, 2014, there have been six collisions involving personal injuries and vehicle speed was not cited as the cause by police officers in any of those cases.

A council spokeswoman, said: “Although there have been collisions at this junction it is not an unusually high number for a junction of this type. In this context, and given the small average reductions in speed that are normally achieved by designating 20mph limits, it is not possible to say with any certainty what impact a 20mph limit here would have in terms of reducing collisions and injuries.”

A car flipped onto its roof in February 2013

Labour leader Emma Dent Coad lives near Friday’s accident junction and added: “On Friday night I thought a bomb had exploded, but it was yet another accident at the junction near my house. We’ve had three cars flipped over on this road; it is a miracle no one was killed or seriously injured. The council must listen to residents’ concerns.”

Parts of St Helen’s ward, Dalgarno and Golborne lie within a traffic study area which the council is reviewing with community groups which will provide an opportunity to look at requests for traffic changes.

Check out the petition here .