BUSINESSMEN and residents are calling for improved safety measures on a road where they fear someone will be killed.

Random police speed checks are carried out in Stockton Road, Middlesbrough, and posters appealing to motorists to slow down have just gone up on lampposts.

However, Cleveland Car Centre business partners Darren Morgan and Mark Bullock believe the speed of traffic along the road could cause a fatality.

"It's only a matter of time before someone is killed,'' said Mr Bullock.

"It's all down to speed. There have been a few near misses.

"It is a wide, straight road, as wide as the A66, but with a 30mph and 40mph limit.

"It's a real problem. The police do come with a mobile camera, but there should be a permanent camera there."

Last week, a driver who saw a woman on a pedestrian crossing at the last minute braked and swerved into a roadside barrier.

The bumper of the car came off with the force of the impact.

Last November, another driver lost control of his car, which veered onto the wrong side of the road and crashed into a resident's BMW, narrowly missing customers at the Cleveland Car Centre.

A spokesman for the 1,400-pupil Macmillan College, also in Stockton Road, said: "We would welcome anything which improves safety for the students, staff and parents of Macmillan College."

Ex-traffic police inspector Mick Bennett, the spokesman for the Cleveland Safety Camera Partnership, is to check the casualty records for the Stockton Road area.

He said: "We do camera checks with the mobile camera, but that is only random."

Mr Bennett added: "In order to qualify for a permanent camera, we would have to see four people killed or seriously injured in three years - so ludicrous are the present Government rules."

A spokeswoman for Cleveland Police said: "We would remind people there is a 30mph limit in this area and we will be monitoring motorists' behaviour."

Joan Ford, chairwoman of the West Middlesbrough Neighbourhood Trust, which manages the £52m New Deal for Communities in the area, said: "As one of our key aims is to make West Middlesbrough safer, we would urge all motorists to drive sensibly and consider others, to keep Stockton Road, and West Lane, safe."