RAILWAY bosses have demanded that action is taken against speeding on a treacherous stretch of road after a car crashed through a barrier and landed on a track - for the third time in seven days.

A woman was taken to hospital for a precautionary check after her car left the A6076 Burdon Plain, which spans the Durham/Tyne and Wear county boundary, between Stanley and Sunniside.

The VW Lupo crashed through a wooden barrier and crossed the Tanfield Railway before landing on its side at 4.50pm yesterday.

The accident came only days after a 24-year-old man from the Durham City area, driving a Ford Focus, crashed through the barriers on the same stretch.

He was cut free from the vehicle by firefighters from the Durham brigade before being taken to Gateshead's Queen Elizabeth Hospital, suffering serious multiple injuries, at 7am on Monday.

The previous Friday, a driver was unhurt when he crashed on the same stretch.

Ian Cown, a civil engineer at the Tanfield Railway tourist attraction, said last night: "This is beyond belief. This is the third accident here in seven days and the seventh so far this year.

"Cars come along this stretch of road far too fast. There has to be some form of speed control here."