Two more smashes on a blackspot country lane have left locals demanding answers.
Residents in and around the B6118 Bellstring Lane between Upper Hopton and Kirkheaton have been keeping a record of crashes – and there were two more at the weekend.
Simon Moyser, 57, of Bellstring Lane, is building a body of evidence for Kirklees Council.
Down the years, the road is believed to have seen two fatalities but since there were three crashes in three days last November, the road has been blighted by accidents.
On Saturday a car left the road and ploughed into a wall and on Sunday a red Fiat came to grief further down on Liley Lane towards Grange Moor after what was believed to be a tyre blow out. No-one was thought to be seriously hurt.
People have come up with various theories for the accidents including excessive speed, the camber of the road and mud from quarries and farmland.
Michael Mulligan, 48, has lived on the junction of Bellstring Lane and Cockley Hill Lane since he was five-years-old.
He said back in the 1980s the stretch from Cockley Hill Lane to the old Freemasons Arms pub had a 60mph limit and there were crashes “whenever it rained.”
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After a motorcyclist was killed the council cut the speed limit to 40mph and laid anti-slip surfaces on the bends and that “virtually eliminated crashes overnight”, he said.
Mr Mulligan said he believed there were two reasons why the accidents had started up again. One was the resurfacing of the road with stone chippings and the other was mud and clay from quarrying and farmland.
He claimed the road was “impregnated” with clay making the road surface slippery when wet. It wasn’t obviously muddy but was constantly discoloured yellow.
A spokesman for Rochdale-based Casey Group, which operates Laneside Quarry in Bellstring Lane, said the firm operated under strict planning conditions and had wet and dry wheel cleaning devices on site and a vacuum road sweeper cleaned internal and external roads.
The spokesman said the company had received no complaints from the local authority about mud on the road for some time and discolouration could be caused by erosion of the verge or gritting.
A council spokesman said: “The council is aware of the situation on Bellstring Lane/Liley Lane. Investigations are ongoing into what, if anything, can be done to reduce the number of incidents on this road.”
