Andrew Smith MP at the scene of the fatal crash Oxford East MP Andrew Smith is leading calls for a crash barrier to be installed on the stretch of the Eastern Bypass where Saturday night's crash which killed four people took place.

The appeal comes as Oxfordshire County Council released figures for accidents on the road dating back to 1979.

Mr Smith said last night (Friday) that he first asked for barriers to be provided four years ago, after an accident which left Adrian Bull, 26, of Oxford Road, Littlemore, paralysed. He later made a full recovery.

It emerged yesterday that no crash barriers were in place at the site of Saturday's accident because there had been a low number of crossover accidents -- where a vehicle crosses the central reservation -- and none involved deaths.

But barriers were put up on an adjacent section of the road in 1990 after two crossover crashes left motorists dead.

Mr Bull was left paralysed when his car crossed the central reservation and collided with an oncoming lorry.

Mr Smith said of last Saturday's crash: "It's been an appalling tragedy, a waste of young lives and we will only be able to draw definitive conclusions after the crash investigation is completed.

"This is a fast stretch of road which has seen accidents before and I would support both a barrier and speed restrictions like there are on the Western Bypass. The Eastern Bypass is often a faster stretch of road than the western route and yet there are still no barriers or speed restrictions."

Oxfordshire County Council yesterday (Friday) released accident figures for the area where last Saturday's fatal crash occurred.

Richard Dix, the council's acting head of transport, said: "While there are no immediate plans to install a barrier, we will look at this again in the light of the investigation."

David Robertson, the deputy leader of the council and cabinet member for transport, said he would treat the question of whether or not a crash barrier should be installed as a matter of the greatest urgency.

He added: "We want to review this in the light of the police accident investigation so that we can make an informed decision."

The accident statistics for the relevant section of the bypass show that between 1979 and April this year there were three fatal accidents, leading to four deaths. There were also six crossover accidents. Three of the crossover accidents caused six serious casualties, but no deaths.

Department of Transport directives say councils should put crash barriers on the central reservations of dual carriageways where they can be economically justified by likely savings in the cost of accidents.

According to the county council, the data showed it was not "economically justifiable" under the directives to provide barriers where last Saturday's crash happened, because crossover accidents formed a low proportion of the total number of crashes -- 9.8 per cent -- and there had been no fatalities resulting from crashes caused by vehicles crossing the central reservation.