AN MP today warned county council transport bosses that more people will die if emergency traffic calming measures are not put in place at an accident blackspot.

Speaking after a 69-year-old woman had to be cut free from her car and airlifted to hospital after a three-car smash in Whalley Road, Read, Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans, said that "inaction was now not an option."

For years campaigners, led by Mr Evans, have pleaded for measures to be put in place in the area known locally as "Devil's Elbow" but he said in light of the latest collision on Sunday that the council must now address safety issues as a "top priority."

He added: "I am deeply saddened to hear that another accident has occurred on this notoriously dangerous stretch of road.

"The council must now implement traffic calming measures immediately or more people will die and be seriously injured on this road.

"Yes the county council has put up new 50mph speed signs but that is not good enough as all people are doing is seeing the road signs as they career off the road and into a farmer's field.

"The council must now realise that doing nothing will result in lost lives.

"Perhaps a start would be putting up signs at each end of the road saying how many people have been killed on it and how many serious accidents there have been."

Sergeant Keith Jackson from the road policing unit attended Sunday's accident involving a Rover 214 driven by a 17-year-old from Clitheroe, a Vauxhall Minerva driven by a 69-year-old woman from Whitefield and a Peugeot 406 driven by a man from Manchester.

He said the woman sustained a broken elbow, a cut to her leg and chest injuries in the smash and the other drivers suffered whiplash injuries.

A Lancashire County Council spokesman said: "We spent £100,000 last year improving road signs on Whalley Road as part of an ongoing programme of traffic calming measures.

"We will be monitoring this stretch of road of road to see how effective this has been and will consider if anything more needs to be done."