SPEEDING drivers have left residents living in a Toothill road in fear of their lives.

They say motorists travel too fast along Bodiam Drive and some youngsters use the road as a racing circuit, travelling along the 30 mph road at 50 or 60 mph.

Now Bodiam Drive resident Debbie Mills has launched a campaign to have traffic calming measures put in place after she said she came within inches of death.

She said: "I was just pulling into Bodiam Drive, off Great Western Way. I was only doing about 20 mph and this car came screeching around the corner at 60 mph.

"If I hadn't been going so slowly he would have hit me head-on, it missed me by inches."

Debbie, a 35-year-old mother-of-three, said she believed it was only a matter of time before someone gets killed.

"It scared the life out of me," she said.

"Speeding has always been a problem down here but this incident has really brought it home to me.

"Myself and a number of residents feel there should be some sort of traffic calming along here.

"There's always speeding along this road. But it's the young lads who seem to be the worst doing 50 or 60."

Paul Bansal, 41, has lived in the road for 22 years.

He said the problem of young drivers racing up and down the road has been a long standing one.

Several years ago a driver mounted the curb and collided with a car parked in Mr Bansal's driveway at 1.30am on a Saturday night.

He said: "There's got to be something done about it. I've got kids and so have a lot of other people who live on this road.

"It seems to be youngsters who have just passed their test and are showing off with their new cars.

"We need some speed barriers in place to make they slow down before someone gets killed."

Mrs Mills said she is compiling a petition and intends to present it to Swindon Council to demand some form of traffic calming on the road, which runs parallel with Great Western Way.

Swindon Council spokeswoman Lynda Fleming said: "Bodiam Drive residents haven't been in contact recently regarding this.

"In our local safety review in 1999 it was one of 61 sites we looked at that year. We found there had been no injury accidents and the average speed of vehicles was 26 mph in a 30 mph zone.

"Because we have a very limited budget there is no chance of money being made available for places where there are no injury accidents while there are places where there have been injury accidents on record."

She did, however, invite Bodiam Drive residents to contact council officials to discuss what could be done.