“THE drivers are going to kill a kid soon” — residents have voiced their fears after the latest in a slew of smashes in their road.

Residents of St Johns Road, Chew Moor, fear that lives could be lost after crashes have seen several cars written off.

The most recent was on Sunday at 7pm when a driver careered into a parked car before shunting another into a garden wall.

Sean Currass' car was smashed for the second time this year. He said: “An hour before the crash I was putting my grandson in the car. Had it happened an hour before we would have been in the car that was hit. It was lucky someone wasn’t walking by, it wouldn’t have been unusual at that time. They would have lost their legs. Someone is going to get killed.”

Residents say their wing mirrors are regularly lost to drivers doing more than 70 miles per hour on the 30 miles per hour road.

Mr Currass, 51, said: “My car was an 18 registration, had less than 17,000 miles on the clock and it’s been smashed up twice since February. My insurance has gone over £1,000 a year for one car for the first time in my life.”

“For all the claims I’ve had to make, no one has been in the car. It’s the speed that’s the problem, they come down this road at some lick."

Residents have asked Bolton Council for traffic calming measures or speed cameras but are now angry with the lack of action. Paul O’Neill, wrote to the council in April following another crash and was told that “financial constraints” would prevent any changes.

Now he says the response is unacceptable: “The council are refusing to do anything but the drivers are going to kill a kid soon. It has been quite lucky that in the last crash no one was severely injured. If they put a speed camera there, they would get the cost back in six months.”

A Bolton Council spokesman said: “The police are responsible for enforcing speeding and we would urge drivers to be responsible motorists, obey the speed limit and to be mindful of pedestrians.

"Unfortunately driver speed, error or undue care is not something the council is responsible for or can control. Our accident records are informed specifically by police reports, and if an accident is a result of a problem with the road design this would be highlighted and the council would investigate."

"Funding could only be allocated by the council if it can influence change and the limited funding available is targeted at specific child education and high priority actions.”