A FATAL crash on an accident blackspot has prompted renewed calls for the road to be turned into a dual carriageway.

Two men died on the A171 Guisborough to Scarborough road, near the Stanghow turn off, at Lockwood Beck, east Cleveland, when their vehicles were involved in a collision on Monday evening involving a Land Rover Discovery and a Mercedes box van. A local man in his 40s and a Northumberland man in his 30s were pronounced dead at the scene.

A local woman was comfortable in Middlesbrough General Hospital yesterday with a broken collar bone. The men are expected to be identified later today.

The single carriageway road travels through some of the most stunning parts of North Yorkshire, but is a notorious accident blackspot.

This latest crash has led to renewed calls for the road to be made into a dual carriageway.

Councillor David Walsh, leader of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, said he was not prepared to speak on the cause of an accident before an inquest.

But he said that the cost of dualling the road would be in excess of £1.5m-a-mile, but a major improvement scheme was due to be discussed by the council's executive in the next few weeks.

Ashok Kumar, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, said he was prepared to ask the Government to consider dualling the road.

"The figures are quite shocking and I am aware of the dangers of this road. I am happy to gain support for it to be made a dual carriageway, because every life that is saved is precious."

In the four years to May, there have been 64 collisions on the moors road in Cleveland, in which five people have been killed and 87 injured, 18 seriously.

On the North Yorkshire side of the road, there have been seven fatal accidents and 46 serious collisions, since January 1997.