A HUDDERSFIELD sub-postmaster and his mother were badly injured in a road accident in Spain.

Gary Dobson, of Oakes post office, and his 80-year-old mother, Joyce, were both taken to intensive care after the head-on crash on a darkened road.

Both have since improved and are on wards at different hospitals near the tourist resort of Malaga on the Costa Del Sol in southern Spain.

Mr Dobson, 52 has run the post office at the Bay Horse roundabout for the last 13 years.

Speaking to the Examiner from his hospital bed, he said they were returning to their hotel in Fuengirola from sightseeing when they decided to take a detour in their Opel Corsa hire car to look at yachts in a harbour.

They turned off a dual carriageway and were on a normal road when the crash happened at 6.30pm last Friday.

They were involved in a head-on smash on a bend.

Both Mr Dobson and his mother were knocked unconscious and suffered facial injuries.

Mrs Dobson also suffered a head injury which led to cerebral bleeding.

Mr Dobson suffered three broken ribs and a fractured pelvis.

They were taken to different hospitals and Mr Dobson was in intensive care for the first 48 hours.

He was anxious to find out about his mother and later learned she had also been in intensive care and had suffered the bleed in her head.

That has now stopped, her condition has stabilised and she is improving on a ward.

Mr Dobson said: "Those first few days were desperate. I was so worried about mum and I've only had a couple of very brief phone conversations with her.

"She's more coherent now than she was at first, but there's no way she's back to her normal self.

"I've been going through hell, really. At first my facial injuries were so severe my eyes were swollen shut.

"I had to prop them open with my fingers to see anything. "

The crash is the third bad thing that has happened to the Dobsons this year.

Mrs Dobson suffered a stroke and then in August raiders smashed their way into the post office late one night and dragged the newly-installed cash machine out. They forced it open on a nearby road and discovered there was no cash in it.

Mr Dobson said: "People say bad luck comes in threes and we've certainly had ours."