PEOPLE are being asked their views on plans to improve safety on a busy stretch of road.

During the past three years, there have been 17 accidents in which people have been injured, including three involving pedestrians, on the A1290 in Washington.

Sunderland City Council has come up with a scheme to reduce casualties by lowering traffic speeds and improving facilities for pedestrians.

Plans include a 40mph speed limit on Havannah Road between its roundabout junctions with the A182 Washington highway and Blue House Lane/Well Bank Road; creating pedestrian refuges with slow markings and skid resistant surfacing; introducing high visibility gateways to alert drivers to speed limits; and building two mini-roundabouts at the junctions of Blue House Lane/Albany Way and Vermont/Speculation Place.

Drawings of the proposals will be on show from Monday at the Jet filling station in Havannah Road, the Nisa supermarket in Blue House Lane, the Total filling station in Blue House Lane, and the Flawless Floor Company, Old Co-operative Buildings, Concorde.

People will be asked to give their views of the plans.

Andy Morris, the council's head of transport and engineering, said: "We believe the proposals we have come up with will have a positive impact in terms of reducing the number of accidents along this busy road.

"But we are very keen to hear what local people think, and we would encourage them to go along and have a look at the plans."

Forms should be returned to the director of development and regeneration at Sunderland Civic Centre by Friday, February 14.