A FRUSTRATED campaigner says the council has blood on its hands for not taking action on a dangerous stretch of road which has taken the life of a teenage girl.

Driving instructor Mark Cole has previously called Essex County Council’s highways department for action on the B1352 between Mistley and Bradfield due to the amount of accidents there.

He discovered £62,000 has been spent on repairing Brickman’s Bridge, on the B1352, as a result of 11 incidents over the past eight years.

The same patch of road took the life of 18-year-old Carys Hammond, who died after her car crashed into the bridge on Monday, April 17.

Mr Cole, who is also chairman of the Colchester and District Driving Instructors Association, said despite his efforts his campaign has come to a complete stand still.

“Nothing has been done,” he said. “So when something unfortunate should happen I hold the council responsible.”

He said his heart goes out to the family of Carys and his is now prepared to sit down with authorities to devise a plan to address the road’s dangers.

He said: “I am extremely fed up with Essex County Council and they have blood on their hands now.

“I also think Carlo Guglielmi should step down because of the lack of action taken on the roads.”

Mr Cole said he also wants county councillor for highways and transport Eddie Johnson to resign.

Carlo Guglielmi, Tendring councillor for Mistley said: “My thoughts are with the woman’s family and it must be very hard to come to terms with it.

“As far as I am aware it is the second death to happen on that bridge and it is a challenging road to drive, so it will be interesting to discover what the police have to say.

“The bend where the bridge is located is notorious and the bridge wall has be demolished before because of road accidents.”

Mr Guglielmi said he wants to speak with the relevant authorities to come up with both a short term and long term plan to try and prevent a serious accident happening again.

He said: “The simplest short term plan is to have a visible warning near to the bend to warn drivers of its extremity and the long term plan would be to see if a speed limit of 30 mph could be enforced, or even speed bumps.

“I want to call for everyone to take as much care as possible when approaching the bend and be extra careful.”

A spokesperson for Essex Highways said: “We were saddened to hear of this tragic death and our thoughts are with the victim’s family at this sad time.

“Essex Highways will fully investigate the collision in conjunction with our colleagues at Essex Police, as we do for all fatal road incidents. It would be inappropriate to comment further until these investigations have taken place.”