AN MP is calling for immediate safety measures at an accident blackspot.

Stockton South MP Dari Taylor is urging Government officials to order the installation of flashing lights on the A66, outside the village of Long Newton, before more lives are lost.

The blackspot, which has been dubbed Death Mile by locals, claimed its latest victim last month -an elderly driver killed as he attempted to cross the busy dual carriageway through a gap in the central reservation opposite the village

There have been 35 serious accidents on the A66 outside the village between 1987 and 1992.

In 1985, seven people died in seven months on the dual carriageway between the villages of Sadberge, Long Newton and Elton.

Plans to replace the central reservation crossover points were put forward in the 1980s and announced by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in April 2001, but funding has not been provided for the work.

A Government spokesman said: "Tender documents have been prepared and we are just hoping and looking for a start of work in the middle of next year and completion by the end of 2007."

Mrs Taylor welcomed the move, but said she wanted to prevent more deaths in the intervening period and was calling for immediate temporary action.

She said: "My warmth goes out to the people of Long Newton, who have battled long for this and often been the lone voice.

"I am delighted tender documents are now being looked at, but how could road engineers have left the road without controls, whether a lighting system or roundabout for so long? I cannot work out why they cannot do it.

"Both sides of the road, the lanes from Darlington and those from Stockton, need flashing warning lights.

"We have them when children are coming out of school; we need them to warn drivers they are entering a dangerous point in the road, an accident blackspot.

"I think it is a long time to wait for the completion of the work and fervently hope we are not going to see more deaths without any measures being taken."

Ward councillor Liberal Democrat Mike Cherrett said: "Perhaps a bit of enforcement action might be the trick."