AS yet another accident causes mayhem on East Lancashire's notorious Grane Road and triggers new complaints by worried residents, can more be done to make this, the county's most dangerous highway, any safer?

For now it is claimed that the deadly moorland road is becoming a 'rat-run' for monster trucks from as far away as Scotland and Yorkshire -- and this after action to curb lorries using it as a short cut.

The mixture of crawling lorries and faster-moving cars on this winding country road is at the root of the Grane menace. But the influx of more and more trucks since the completion of the M65 link to the M6 and M61 near Preston is blamed for continuing and increasing the danger.

It is true that this newspaper's high-profile Stop the Carnage campaign has led to a 50 mph speed limit on most of its length and as a 40 mph limit near Belthorn as well as improved signs and warning notices. But the fact remains that this road, far from suitable for heavy goods vehicles to begin with, is being used by more than ever -- and, as Tony Hodbod, of the Grane Residents' Association claims, is now regarded by truckers from far and wide as part of the national trunk road network.

It would seem, then, that there has been little benefit from the new signs on the A56 Haslingden by-pass designed to encourage lorries to take the longer, safer route to join the M65 at Huncoat instead of at Guide at the Blackburn end of the Grane Road.

Mr Hodbod says this will go on until HGV restrictions are imposed on the Grane. But, as the law stands, they have a perfect right to use it. And even if a ban or limit on them could be imposed, it could result in harm to the local economy by adding to businesses' costs.

Besides, it is not that the lorries are a danger in themselves. Rather it is speed and impatience on the part of other drivers that is the danger element.

Does not more now need to be done to curb that -- so that the warning signs about speed cameras are not ineffective tokens? There need to be both fixed cameras on the Grane -- ideally, the new sort that measure speed over a distance -- coupled with a blitz by police with laser cameras so that drivers know that if they speed on this road they will be caught and punished. High profile prosecutions for speeding drivers would also assist the cause

And if that does not work, then, yes, stopping trucks from using the Grane -- by blocking access from the Haslingden by-pass, as has been suggested -- should then be looked at as the next step.