New calls have been made for safety improvements on the A66 near Penrith following the death of a Carlisle woman in a car crash.

Ann Copley, 76, of Montgomery Court, Durranhill, died on Tuesday in a collision near the Llama Karma Kafe.

The crash involved a white Renault Master van and the silver Citroen C3 which Ms Copley was driving.

This stretch of the A66 - which leads through Cumbria and across the Pennines to the north east - is a notorious accident black spot.

The A66 as a whole has also been the scene of a number of fatalities in recent years.

The latest tragedy has prompted calls from Mary Robinson, chairwoman of Eden Council, for an urgent upgrade.

Ms Robinson said: "The road is dangerous, with heavy traffic.

"The road is always busy and I am not sure why that stretch appears to be so dangerous.

"Perhaps we need to have average speed cameras all the way on the areas that aren't dualled.

"As a council we are looking to do something to take the traffic away from the Kemplay roundabout (at nearby Penrith).

"The road needs upgraded. It should have been done 20 years ago.

"It needs to happen sooner rather than later.

"We get 15 million tourists a year and we're a tourist hot spot.

"Big wagons and bad weather also contribute."

Ms Robinson said motorists have to be patient when pulling out onto that road.

She said: "Quite often tractors with trailers pull onto that road. You have to wait for a gap and sometimes that can take a while.

"It's not unusual for some vehicles to have to wait quarter of an hour to pull out from one of the side roads onto the A66 in that area."

Staff at the Llama Karma Kafe regularly see accidents on that stretch of road.

Diane Back, assistant manager, said: "A lot of the problems are down to speed.

"That stretch of road is long and straight right up to Center Parcs and people speed on it.

"It's far too fast.

"I think they maybe need to set a speed limit of 50mph to get people to slow down.

"It's not nice to see an accident and Tuesday's crash was tragic."

Caroline Walker, who manages the cafe, said: "It's such a busy road leading from a dual carriageway to a single.

"It has bends in the middle and people are not paying attention to their driving.

"People seem to lose concentration on that stretch - maybe they need to take more breaks.

"It's a narrow and long stretch and it's awful to see when accidents happen."

The driver of the Renault Master was a 76-year-old man from Ipswich.

A police spokesman said: "He was airlifted to hospital with serious injuries."

He was said to be in a stable condition yesterday.

There were heavy delays in and around the scene of the tragedy as the scene was cleared, made safe and investigations into how the crash happened were launched.

The A66 was closed in both directions between the Kemplay roundabout and Temple Sowerby.

Drivers reported heavy delays on rural roads between Penrith and Appleby and on the A6 as traffic was diverted away from the scene.

The road did not reopen until about 6pm.

Investigating officers are now appealing for anyone who may have witnessed the collision or have dashcam footage to come forward.

* Anyone with any information should email 101@cumbria.police.uk or call 101 and ask to speak to PC 2334 Richard Barry.