CYCLISTS have demanded safety improvements on Hammersmith Bridge after an 18-year-old girl was nearly seriously injured in an accident there.
Riders want speed limits to be reduced to 20mph and clearer signs to warn drivers not to overtake.
They staged a protest at the bridge on Saturday fuelled by an accident the previous weekend which left young cyclist Clara Vergez trapped between a car and a bridge support after two vehicles had collided.
Student Miss Vergez, from Iffley Road, Hammersmith, was cycling to Kew Gardens with her father, Alexis, 46, and mother Claude, 48, when the smash happened.
Mr Vergez said: "I heard a big noise and turned around and heard my daughter screaming. I dropped my bike and ran to the scene. I could not see my daughter as I could only see the car smashed against the main pillar of the bridge and my wife running like mad to get to her."
Miss Vergez was trapped behind the car while her mother attempted to push the vehicle away. Eventually she was freed with no serious injuries but police had to close the road and traffic was at a standstill for three hours.
The family have been cycling on Hammersmith Bridge since they first moved to London from Paris 18 years ago but Mr Vergez said he has never felt comfortable on the route.
The family are now calling for a 20mph speed limit on the bridge "We want what happened to Clara to be used as an example. People use the pedestrian pavement because it isn't safe to cycle."
Fellow cyclists gathered at the bridge last Saturday and called for 20mph restrictions on all London bridges.
Hammersmith and Fulham Council denied the bridge was unsafe.
Head of transport councillor Victoria Brocklebank-Fowler said: "Hundreds of cyclists use Hammersmith Bridge every day and yet there have only been two collisions that we know of in the past four years on the bridge. We monitor traffic on the bridge closely and know that the vehicles travelling on it rarely travel faster than 20mph, and the road has very clear markings that no overtaking is allowed unless it is safe to do so."
She added new signs and markings would be put on the approach to the bridge in the coming months.
