VILLAGERS campaigning to get the speed limit through their community halved, fear someone could be killed if action is not taken.

People in Middlestone, near Bishop Auckland, have started a petition to reduce the 60mph limit to 30mph in a bid to cut the number of road accidents.

Jill Hilditch, 35, was spurred into organising the petition after a Ford Fiesta came down the village's main Low Road and crashed into her parked Ford Galaxy on Friday lunchtime, writing it off.

She said there had been at least five bad accidents at the same stretch of road in the past few years.

Villagers are now planning to appeal to Durham County Council, the highways authority, for action to resolve the problem.

"The whole village is concerned there's going to be a death," said Mrs Hilditch, a primary school teacher.

"I have three young children and I dare not let them out because of the speed.

"The latest accident was awful, and I think it has really panicked everybody."

She said villagers were concerned there would have to be a death before they saw action to stop speeding drivers.

"I would like to see a 30mph limit like the village near us, Leasingthorne, but they only seemed to get it when someone was killed there," said Mrs Hilditch.

"We don't have any footpaths either, so if someone is coming through the village at speed you can't get out of the way.

"Children do cross the road and a farmer takes his cows across. Also, people walk their dogs and ride horses."

She said they would be handing their petition into the council later in the week.

A spokesman for Durham County Council said: "If the residents send in their petition, we will consider it sympathetically to identify any problem which exists on the road in question and to determine what the residents are seeking would be the most appropriate solution to it."

Police said yesterday they were continuing investigations into Friday's accident