A councillor has called for road safety measures on a Keighley road where joyriders are speeding downhill and smashing into residents' vehicles.

Keighley councillor Barry Thorne (Lab, Keighley West) said traffic calming needs to be installed at Fell Lane quickly before someone is killed.

Coun Thorne made his call following a hit and run accident on Tuesday in which youths fled after smashing a stolen car into a parked Fiat Uno. The incident followed a number of accidents in the last six months involving speeding vehicles.

In one incident a 21-year-old man and his 25-year-old female passenger were seriously injured when a Nova car went out of control, hit a van and demolished a wall.

Coun Thorne said: "Urgent action now needs to be taken before somebody is killed.

"Some work has been carried out by Brad-ford highways, and road markings for parking areas outside the houses have been put down. But we should be looking at 'throating' when the road is narrowed to slow people down. Even people in stolen cars would have to slow down faced with such a situation."

Coun Thorne said he would be writing to Keighley Police Superintendent Graham Sunderland and highways bosses at City Hall about his concerns and calling for action.

In the latest incident, a Rover Maestro collided with the Fiat Uno at about 1.30am on Wednesday. The owner of the Uno, a mother of three who does not wish to be identified, said she was woken by a loud bang.

"I looked out of the window and saw my car, which had been pushed onto the pavement, and the other car with its door open and the engine still running," she said.

"There was a strong smell of petrol and I was frightened it was going to explode and all the houses would go up in flames."

She said it was getting more difficult to know where to park cars in the area.

At the front of the houses the vehicles could be hit by passing vehicles and at the rear they were likely to be stolen or damaged, she said.

A Keighley police spokesman said officers were treating the incident as a hit and run.