Staffordshire highways bosses received a letter pleading for a lower speed limit on a stretch of road – weeks before a 24-year-old died in a crash at the spot.

Emma Cleaver died and a female passenger was injured. The Vauxhall Corsa in which Emma, of Shakespeare Road, Chase Terrace, and the passenger were travelling collided with a Porsche Boxter on the night of October 25.

Just three weeks earlier retired facilities manager Graham Griffiths, aged 73, had written to Staffordshire County Council’s Highways department.

Mr Griffiths asked for the speed limit on Hanney Hay Road, Burntwood, to be reduced from 50mph to 20mph. Mr Griffiths, of Larkspur Avenue, Chasetown, wrote the letter after he was cut up by a speeding car at the Triangle island.

He said: “When I heard about Miss Cleaver’s death it filled me with horror and sadness. I feared an accident was imminent. Last I was cut up at the Triangle by a young man driving too fast.

“The 50mph limit is too much along that road as it is only 20ft wide in some places.”

Mr Griffiths received a reply from the highways department explaining that implementing a lower speed limit would mean introducing traffic calming, which was not a viable expense.

Kathy Watton, who lives at Brook Farm on the Hanney Hay Road close to where the accident took place, has also called for action to reduce speeding on the road.

Mrs Watton, 56, added the road had been used as a rat run since the M6 Toll motorway opened.

He said; “I’m not even comfortable walking down the road – there is too much traffic going far too fast.”

Staffordshire County Council spokesman Jeremy Herbert said: “It would be inappropriate to knee-jerk a reaction to the recent tragic fatal accident. We are aware of Mr Griffiths’ concerns.”

Mr Herbert said there had been no other injury accidents on the road reported to the police over the past three years.

He added: “We will of course, once police investigations are complete, look at the issues again.”

Following the collision on October 25 the driver of the Porsche, a 42-year-old man from Burntwood, was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.

He has been released on bail.