SPEED CHECKS and highways work are being urged at an accident blackspot in Gunnislake which has been the location of many accidents, including a fatal one at the beginning of the year.
Members of Calstock Parish Council said the combination of excess speed and the road layout was contributing to the high number of accidents on Sandhill.
There was a fatal road accident at Sandhill on New Year's Day but there have been at least six other accidents there in the past few years, councillors said.
Cllr Ian Kirk said it was a 30mph speed limit but drivers were breaking it going up the hill.
He said: 'I have not seen any speed cameras set up there but there should be.
'As far as I can see the accidents are all a result of excess speed.'
Cllr Mike Greenwood said: 'There is a problem with the road. At one point there is a bit of a brow and an adverse camber and anyone inexperienced could come to grief there.
'It is very easy to lose control, particularly if you are exceeding the speed limit. We need the police to enforce the speed limit and highways to examine the road at that point to see if anything can be done to improve it.'
It was agreed to ask the police to monitor the speed of traffic at Sandhill with their speed gun and write to highways so an officer could visit the location.
County councillor Godfrey Smale said the road was 'certainly dangerous' and 'always had been'.
Cllr Smale said: 'It is probably one of the most dangerous bits of road in Cornwall.
'Three or four years ago the police said the accident rate was not sufficient to warrant action. But there has been the fatal accident and others since then.'
Cllr Smale said heavy goods vehicles using the road made it more dangerous.
A local working party had been created approximately seven years ago to look at solutions to alleviate the problem on Sandhill, but nobody had yet come up with an affordable, workable scheme, he said.
Sgt Brett Phillips of Callington Police said he agreed, both from a personal and professional point of view, that speeding on Sandhill was an issue.
The sergeant felt that 'education, enforcement and possibly re-engineering' could all be looked at in an attempt to make the road safer.
Sgt Phillips said: 'I would support any measure to curb speeding and we all need to tackle it together as a partnership approach — the road from St Ann's Chapel to Gunnislake is notorious for speeding.'
Sgt Phillips said residents in the Cox Park area were working with the police on a 'community speedwatch' programme, in which volunteer members of the public were trained to use a device to monitor vehicle speeds.
The data gathered will be collated, offenders written to and evidence could be used for enforcement action or to back up requests for engineering work in problem areas.
Sgt Phillips said if Calstock Parish Council would like to be involved in such a community campaign, the police would be very happy to talk to members further.