A councillor is calling for work to begin urgently on a major safety scheme for Bolton Road, where Bradford police officer Ian Walker died last month.

Figures released yesterday show that 86 people had been injured - two fatally and nine seriously - on the danger road in recent years.

The statistics, sent by West Yorkshire Police to Bradford councillor David Gray, give details of every accident on Bolton Road from April, 2003, to the end of September, 2007.

The latest fatality was that of PC Ian Walker, 51, a traffic officer in the Bradford North division who died in an horrific crash in Bolton Road while riding his motorbike to work.

Bradford Council's north area committee has already agreed to a scheme to bring in measures to calm traffic on Bolton Road, Queens Road and Lister Road and the Ashbourne Estate.

The works scheme was agreed by the committee in September and will be carried out in the next few months, a Council spokesman said.

But Coun Gray (Lib, Bolton and Undercliffe) said he could not see any reason why work had not begun immediately.

He is now calling on the Council's highways department to start installing traffic calming measures as a matter of urgency.

He said: "It can't come soon enough. Bolton Road is extremely busy, as is the Ashbourne Estate. The traffic- calming is a mammoth job, one of the biggest in Bradford, but when is it going to start?

"We need this doing urgently before someone else is killed."

The police figures include a fatal crash in February, 2006, when a police car attempted to stop a car which sped off, lost control and crashed at the junction of Bolton Road and Wapping Road.

The driver, a 29-year-old man, died at the scene.

In another fatal crash in June, 2006, a 28-year-old cyclist died when his bike collided with a bus at the junction.

Businessman Keith Hannay, 63, owner of a gents' hairdressers in Bolton Road, said residents had been calling for traffic-calming for 15 years.

He said: "The crossing patrol man takes his life in his hands when he walks into the road. It has needed traffic-calming for years. The sooner it happens the better."

The traffic-calming scheme will include turning part of Bolton Road into a one-way street and installing traffic lights and a pedestrian crossing at the junction with Queens Road and Lister Lane. Parking will also be restricted.

Speed humps will be put in on roads in the Ashbourne Estate and a 20mph zone created. Money has been allocated from the Casualty Reduction Budget programme for a review of the speed limit at Bolton Road.

A Bradford Council spokesman said: "Works to introduce traffic-calming measures on the Ashbourne Estate will start as soon as possible, probably beginning early next year.

"Works on the traffic signal junction at the Bolton Road, Queen's Road and Lister Lane junction are also programmed to commence in the next few months."

e-mail: marc.meneaud@bradford.newsquest.co.uk