Royal Mail drivers were told to avoid using a route near the scene of a crash in Bristol which has left one of their colleagues in hospital with serious back injuries.

The postal worker was in his lorry in the early hours of Saturday morning when it was involved in a collision with a Mercedes car.

The driver of the car died instantly and one of his passengers died in Frenchay Hospital the next day from his injuries. Two other passengers remain in a critical condition in hospital.

Drivers who worked alongside the 44-year-old Royal Mail worker, who also remained in hospital yesterday, claim that people who gathered at the scene of the collision, at the junction between Winterbourne Road and Old Gloucester Road, the following day threw stones at one of their vehicles.

One worker, who asked not to be named, said drivers were scared of returning to the route after managers had told them to keep away for a "short period" following the crash at 2.20am on Saturday.

He said: "The drivers are scared to drive along those routes.

"Because of the accident that happened last Saturday we have been told not to drive down certain roads and we are dreading what will happen when that ends."

A Royal Mail spokeswoman said: "Out of respect we asked our drivers to use alternative routes for a short period while the families of those involved in this tragic accident visited the scene."

She said that staff are no longer being advised to avoid the scene of the crash.

Avon and Somerset Constabulary said that no one had reported any attacks or threats to Royal Mail staff in the wake of the collision.