RESIDENTS have called for a speed limit on the main road which passes through their village after the latest serious accident.

Families living in Evenwood Gate, near West Auckland, say that unless traffic is made to slow down, it is only a matter of time before someone is killed.

Cars are allowed to travel at 60mph passing through the village, but residents want a reduction in the speed limit to cut the amount of accidents.

The driver of a white Nissan van escaped with a cut to his ear after colliding with a parked Citroen Xsara just before 6pm last Wednesday.

The accident destroyed the garden walls of two houses.

The owner of the parked car, June Clairey, was visiting her elderly parents at the time.

"I had only got out of the car ten minutes before the accident. I was in the house and we heard this terrible noise. The car looks a write-off," said Mrs Clairey.

"If she had been in the car, she wouldn't have been here today," said Mrs Clairey's mother, Ida McDonald.

"We have lived here for 26 years and the traffic out there is terrible."

The aftermath of last week's accident was seen by teenager Jestine Fennessey, who two years ago was trapped in a phone box in the village after a car smashed into it.

"I started to well up when I saw the crash," said Jestine, now 16.

"It reminded me so much of my accident and it just brought it all back.

"I think it will take someone to be killed before something is done about reducing the speed limit and what an awful price to pay."

Jestine's stepfather, Malcolm Dowson, said: "I've written to the council, to the police and to the MP to get something done about this road.

"There are young families and elderly people living in Evenwood Gate. We have two road junctions, an entrance to a farm and people coming in and out of their driveways directly onto the road. It just takes common sense to see that we need a speed limit."

Durham County Council said that the length and layout of the village combined with the average speed and volume of traffic passing through it means that a lower speed limit is not appropriate.