A PEDESTRIAN who was injured in a road accident said he ‘feared the worst’ as he lay waiting more than 20 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

Shabaz Khan, 22, said he was knocked unconscious in the collision, and woke up to find himself lying in a pool of blood on the road.

He said police arrived at the scene in Plumer Road, High Wycombe, after about ten minutes, but Shabaz believes ambulance crews should have got to him more quickly.

The young salesman told the Bucks Free Press: "The ambulance station is literally two minutes away [in Suffield Road]...

"I didn’t know what was wrong with me and couldn’t feel my legs or arms - it was nearly zero degrees. I was in shock and feared the worst."

When the ambulance did arrive Shabaz, of Colville Road, was put on a stretcher with a neck brace and oxygen mask.

He says some of his teeth were knocked out and he had two black eyes, but he recovered well after being taken to A&E at Wexham Park Hospital for the night.

The incident happened on November 1, and South Central Ambulance Service said it was called just before 5.30pm, when a passer-by reported a pedestrian had sustained a head injury after a collision with a vehicle.

Spokesman James Keating-Wilkes added: "Other passers-by made the patient comfortable while an ambulance resource was en route to the scene.

"We categorised this call appropriately as a Cat B call [not immediately life-threatening] requiring a 20 minute response.

"The nearest available ambulance resource, crewed by an Emergency Medical Technician and Emergency Care Assistant, was on scene and treating the patient in 23 minutes. This crew called for Paramedic back up and a second ambulance arrived on scene in 36 minutes.

"We were experiencing high levels of demand at the time from patients suffering immediately life threatening medical emergencies."

He said SCAS has moved away from the old "station-based" system to having their vehicles "based in the community according to historic demand".

Police said they were called at 5.38pm, to reports of a collision between a white VW panel van and a pedestrian. Officers said a man was reported for careless driving and will be summonsed to appear at court.