CALLS have been made for speed cameras or traffic-calming measures in an “accident blackspot” in Wickford following another crash.

Residents in Radwinter Avenue and nearby Fambridge Drive heard a huge bang “like a cannon” at about 10pm on Friday night when a Transit van smashed into a lamp post.

The driver of the van, a man in his 30s, was taken to hospital.

Residents living in the street also claim that there was another crash on Saturday night and a third earlier in the week.

Dad-of-one David Brown, 37, who lives in Fambridge Drive, said: “On Friday night, we heard a noise like a cannon going off.

“It was a huge bang.

“This car had come from the BP garage, crashed and gone over the other side of the road, over the footpath and into a wall. It hit a lamp post in the process.”

It is not known whether speed or something else caused that particular crash.

Mr Brown is now calling for action.

He said: “I walk along that road every day and I see every morning and evening people coming flying down the road.

“It is an accident blackspot.

“The road has got death written all over it.

“In Friday night’s crash, there was a woman there with her son.

“The crash happened right in front of them and they called an ambulance for the driver.

“If they had been only about ten or 15 metres ahead then they would have been hit, they would have been wiped out.”

David Harrison, Independent councillor for Wickford Park, said that he was hoping to make representations to Essex County Council’s Highways department about introducing traffic-calming measures.

He said: “I am going to speak to who is responsible for putting in speed cameras or other traffic-calming measures.

“I am going to speaking to the highways department and the South Essex Parking Partnership.

“We have had three accidents in a week, it certainly appears to be an accident blackspot.

“The road obviously needs some sort of traffic management. It’s becoming extremely dangerous.

“At the moment builders are parking along the stretch of road because of the new development which is being built.”

A spokesman for the ambulance service said: “We were called at 10.08pm on August 4 to a report of a road traffic collision in Fambridge Drive, Wickford.

“A rapid response vehicle and ambulance crew attended.

“They treated a man, believed to be in his 30s, who was taken to Basildon Hospital as a precautionary measure.”

Any witnesses to the crash or anyone with information can call Essex Police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.