Safety steps taken on A-road after multiple deaths

New safety measures are to be made on a busy A-road after four fatal collisions on the road in just over a year.

They include better signing and road markings, as well cutting back vegetation on the A361 near Frome. Some of the work has already begun.

The decision to introduce the measures was made after local MP Anna Sabine asked Somerset Council and the police to help address the issue.

In the most recent incident on the road last month, a man died following a crash between a motorbike and a lorry.

In May, two women lost their lives in a three vehicle collision on the A361 Marston Road, just south of Frome.

A month earlier, a women in her twenties lost her life in a collision at the junction of the A361 and A362.

And in July last year, two young sisters were killed in a head-on collision.

Ms Sabine said that road safety in her constituency is one of her priorities.

She said she was keen to get the council and the police together "to try to understand what can be done to improve safety at those key junctions".

She said she appreciated the steps already taken and that they will be "helpful in the short term" but she wants further measures to be implemented.

A particular hot spot on the road is where the A361 meets the A362.

Ms Sabine said: "What I would like to see is something around reducing the speed of the traffic coming down the A361, because if you try and pull out at that junction - and many other junctions in our area - it's clear that it's really unsafe."

Councillor Richard Wilkins, lead member for transport on Somerset Council, said they are working with Avon and Somerset Police to try to get a long term idea of what might be done on the road.

He said: "We're undergoing a full understanding of the issues along the whole bypass, however it was felt that we needed to act swiftly and these measures we felt were good precautionary measures to take place straight away."

He added that understanding what needed to be done is "a bit of long process" but various schemes were being developed.