A £250,000 scheme to light up a killer high-speed bypass was unveiled today.

Lancashire County Council has agreed to putting street lighting up along the Rawtenstall and Edenfield bypass.

Improvements will also be carried out to pedestrian crossings on the road.

A campaign was started by local residents and councillors back in 1997 to get road safety improvements after 12 year-old Simon Laughland, died when he was hit by a car while crossing the bypass, which is effectively an extension of the M66.

That campaign stepped up a gear last year when the road claimed another victim - 11-year-old Emmanuel McConnell died after he was struck by two vehicles while crossing the same stretch of road.

Both accidents took place after dark.

Lancashire County Council pledged to look at what improvements could be made and this morning confirmed that the carriageway would be lit up.

Work will also take place to improve two of the four pedestrian crossings and the footpaths on each side redesigned to guide people towards the improved crossings.

Safety fencing will also be put up along the central reservation which should prevent vehicles crossing the carriageway if involved in an accident and also deter people from going across the road away from the improved crossings.

A report written for cabinet member for highways and transportation, Coun Jean Yates, said that the funding had been allocated on the grounds that it should reduce injuries by 50 per cent.

County council leader Hazel Harding said: "I was very concerned that we take action on this road because we cannot afford any more lives to be lost.

"It is a tragedy that this road has already claimed two lives.

"The improvements will hopefully not only make pedestrians more visible, but make them stick to the improved crossings. When we went on a site visit there, I was horrified at the way it was used as a short-cut by people on foot.

"Because it is of the same standard and look of the M66, people in cars assume it is an extension and travel along it at up to 70mph."

Other options which were considered for the road included reducing parts of the road to just one lane, installing interactive warning signs to encourage people to slow down, upgrading guardrails at the crossing points and the provision of footbridges.

The lighting-up of the road is in line with the recommendations made by the district coroner at Emmanuel McConnell's inquest in 2002.