SPEED bumps are needed to improve safely along the seafront after a car smashed into the front of an ice cream parlour, campaigners claim.

Last week three customers suffered minor injuries after a black Ford Focus accidentally reversed into the front of Rossi’s Ice Cream parlour, in Western Esplanade, Westcliff. It caused significant damage to the building, but traumatised staff rallied round to reopen the following day.

Witnesses told how the driver, an elderly man, panicked as he was trying to move out of the way of oncoming speeding traffic.

The crash has prompted calls for action.

Ronald Colman, 85, a retired paralegal, of Manor Road, Westcliff, said: “This incident was very touching for me and my wife.

“We were sitting out there exactly where the car went through only the day before. It’s miraculous nobody was more seriously hurt or even killed.

“Along the seafront there’s always people that speed out of control. The number of drivers that do it is diabolical.

“The only way to stop this is to put speed bumps down. They have them on London Road and nobody races round there.”

Tory Milton ward councillor Jonathan Garston, who is also on the council’s traffic and parking working party, said steps are already taken to control traffic.

Mr Garston said: “I was incredibly shocked to hear about the accident at Rossi’s.

“It must have been a massive shock for them and I congratulate them for reopening so quickly.

“The seafront is obviously the prime location for leisure area and we want to do whatever we can to make sure people are safe.

“But it is also a main route for traffic to get from one side of the town to the other so we wouldn’t want to do anything that would increase congestion too much.

“Speeding has always been an issue at the seafront and across the borough and we have several schemes in place including a community speed watch programme.

“We could also do a speed count, by putting a strip on the road that measures traffic’s speed.