HOW long does it take to paint a sign?

That was the question being asked today by the devastated family of Jamie Sanders, more than a year after the teenager was killed while trying to cross the A64 at notorious Bilbrough Top.

The Highways Agency said then it was planning measures to make it safer for pedestrians crossing the dual carriageway between York and Tadcaster.

These included a pedestrian refuge in the central reservation and also signs warning motorists that pedestrians might cross in front of them.

The works were first expected last spring. The agency then told the Evening Press in June that the safety improvements were planned "this summer." Then in October, it said they would be introduced before Christmas.

But there is still no sign of the signs - even though pedestrians are still having to brave fast and heavy traffic to get to a bus stop from the Bilbrough Top commercial development - just as 16-year-old Jamie was doing when he was killed. Villagers also cross the road from a bus stop to get to Bilbrough village.

Colin and Chris Sanders, of Northallerton, today branded the delays "inexcusable," warning that they could cost the life of another pedestrian.

"They have no sense of urgency," said Mr Sanders. "We have suffered terribly since we lost our son, and we would not want anyone else to go through the same experience.

"But these inexcusable delays mean that could still happen. How long does it take to paint, or install, a couple of signs?"

And to prove their point, the family have shown that a mock-up of the pedestrian warning sign could be knocked up in under an hour, using three tins of paint and a couple of pieces of hardboard.

Mrs Sanders said: "I cry myself to sleep every night and will never, ever, get over the loss of my son. But knowing that the chance of it happening to other people would be considerably less would perhaps make it a little easier.

"I haven't forgotten the promises the agency made to improve the A64, and I say to them: For goodness sake, do something, sooner, rather than later. Please!"

Mr Sanders says that, even if there have been difficulties deciding where to site the refuge, the agency could still have put up such signs straight away.

An agency spokeswoman said today: "We are still working on the design. A design company has drawn it up and it has to have a safety audit.

"We hope to install it in the next few weeks."

"The locations of the signs are determined by the design and location of the crossing itself, so we can't put the signs up until we have got the crossing designed and ready to put in place."

She added that these would only be interim measures, with the real solution being the construction of a flyover at Bilbrough Top.

But with the agency currently awaiting the result of a public inquiry last autumn into its flyover plans, it cannot be completed for at least another two years.

Updated: 10:36 Friday, January 25, 2002