AROUND 8,000 vehicles a day are having their speed and size captured at six different locations along one road.

Dorset County Council took action after Colehill Parish Council raised concerns about speeding traffic along Middlehill Road.

And the data that is captured as the traffic crosses the cables stretched across Middlehill Road at various points will be used to help with traffic calming measures.

Parish vice-chairman KD Johnson said there had been some accidents on the road, including one on Sunday.

A blue Vauxhall Omega saloon registered to a woman from the Blandford area and a red Vauxhall Polo saloon registered to a woman from Wimborne were in collision at St Michael's Church and one of the vehicles ended up in a hedge.

One driver was taken to Poole Hospital suffering from a possible neck injury and both cars were recovered from the scene.

Police have said it is too early to say what caused the collision.

Mr Johnson said: "That's the second time there has been a vehicle in that hedge in a few weeks.

"Although the junction at the Co-Op is perceived as dangerous, and there have been incidents there, the church crossroads has the worse accident record - mostly due to the poor visibility towards Furzehill for vehicles crossing Smugglers Lane."

The parish council has been asking for traffic calming measures going from the church at the top of Middlehill Road to Canford Bottom roundabout at the far end of the road.

But Mr Johnson said they believe the problem was mostly at night and at the weekend.

Mr Johnson said it also appeared a lot of the traffic was using the road to get to Blandford and Furzehill rather than busier and congested main roads.

Calming measures, such as psychologically making the road appear narrow to traffic, would slow motoring speeds down or encourage them to take alternative routes, he said.

Dorset County Council management engineer Andrew Berry said: "We are currently working on traffic calming ideas, to be introduced later this year.

"We have installed several counters, which will be removed after a couple of weeks."