A34 crash deaths prompt road safety call

Ethan Houghton (left) was killed alongside Aimee Goldsmith and his brother Josh in a crash on the A34 last week

More must be done to prevent crashes on a dual carriageway where a mother and three children died in an eight-vehicle pile-up, campaigners have said.

The A34 Action Group was set up after the crash between Chieveley and East Ilsley, in Berkshire, on 10 August.

Among the ideas discussed at a meeting on Wednesday were cutting the speed limit from 70mph and making it a three-lane carriageway.

Highways England said it always worked to identify safety improvements.

Recent figures revealed the A34, which runs between Hampshire and Oxfordshire, was closed more than once a month last year because of accidents involving fatalities or serious injuries.

Tracy Houghton was travelling home when she was involved in the crash last week

Campaigner Alisdair Cunningham, who set up the group, said: "We will go away and understand and collate all the feelings that have come out tonight, in a sensible and organised fashion and produce a report for the relevant authorities.

"We also want to do our own research and hopefully come up with our own ideas for how to campaign to make this road safer."

The girlfriend of a man killed in a separate collision on the road is also calling for tougher speed restrictions.

Megan Williamson wants the speed limit cut to 50mph after her partner Gavin Roberts died following a crash near the Compton junction in Oxfordshire in June.

Megan Williamson said her partner "would not want anybody to suffer as we have"

About 50 people turned out for the meeting on Wednesday night

"People treat it like a motorway and it is a very narrow road," she said.

Richard Benyon, MP for Newbury, has also written to Highways England requesting a safety review of the road.

A34 Action Group said it had seen a "significant" increase in support after it set up its social media campaign on Sunday

Tracy Houghton, 45, from Dunstable, her two sons, Ethan, 13, and Joshua, 11, and her partner's daughter Aimee Goldsmith, 11, died last week when their car collided with a lorry.

A 30-year-old man from Andover has been bailed on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.