CAMPAIGNERS have called for improved safety at an accident-plagued railway bridge and said: "Does somebody have to die before anything is done?"

The plea came after an 18 tonne skip lorry toppled over after hitting the bridge in Whalley Road, Langho, and shed its skip just yards from a pedestrian walkway.

The chairman and vice chairman of the parish council have now demanded Lancashire County Council take action to improve warning signs at the bridge, where there have been at least eight major accidents in the last few years.

Rail services have been disrupted on a number of occasions amid fears of structural damage to the bridge.

The leader of Lancashire County Council Coun Hazel Harding today vowed to look into the situation, even though police and the husband of a woman injured in an accident joined the calls for action in April.

Police today said the majority of problems were on the road heading into Langho from Blackburn.

Currently there are chevrons and a height disc on the top of the bridge warning that the clearance is 13ft 6ins.

There is an advance warning four miles away at the approach to the village.

A barrier protects the pedestrian walkway.

But campaigners say these are inadequate and say a new system is needed to avoid a repeat of the crashes.

There have been four serious accidents at the bridge in the last four months.

In April a Clitheroe woman suffered head and leg injuries when a lorry tipped over and crushed her car. Her husband called for action to prevent further accidents and police requested a meeting with the county council to discuss the problem.

Two weeks earlier another lorry toppled over after hitting the top of the bridge

In March there were two crashes at the bridge when lorry drivers were slightly injured when their wagons tipped over.

The latest accident, which happened at about 3.30pm yesterday as schoolchildren walked home in the village, caused traffic chaos with queues as far back as the Brownhill area of Blackburn.

The road and railway were both closed for several hours while police removed the skip and lorry and carried out an investigation.

The driver, Stuart Wallis, 61, of Arnside Close, Clayton-le-Moors, was treated for cuts and bruises and passenger Geoffrey Rawcliffe, also 61, of Shakespeare Avenue, Great Harwood, was treated for cuts.

Both were discharged from Blackburn Royal Infirmary after treatment.

The chairman of Langho parish council and vice chairman of the Ribble Valley Rail Group, Brian Haworth, said something urgently needed to be done.

He said: "The barriers would crumble like matchwood if something fell off. Is it going to take somebody being killed before action is taken?"

Vice chairman of the parish council Graham Souter added: "The lack of action is outrageous, something needs to be done immediately. This is a disaster waiting to happen.

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Coun Souter said some sort of electronic warning system could be installed to warn drivers of the low bridge.

He said he would be writing to Railtrack and to Lancashire County Council to discuss what could be done to improve safety.

Leader of Lancashire County Council Hazel Harding said she would be also looking into the case.

She added: "I will certainly be looking into this. Each case needs to be judged on its own merits and we will have to look at the number of accidents there have been in the past before any action is taken."

PC Mark Pilkington of the road safety unit at Accrington said: "This is the fourth serious accident at the bridge this year and we have already submitted a report to Lancashire county council about the latest incident.

"Something definitely needs to be done, either in the way of better signing on the approach roads or on the bridge itself."