A GRIEVING councillor who lost her husband in the latest horrific A40 road smash has told how she had campaigned for the junction to be made safe, writes Victoria Owen.

But new traffic signals and an island crossing planned for the junction with Cassington Road, will come too late for popular villager Arthur Cable.

The 61-year-old grandfather was on his way to work in Stanton Harcourt on Thursday when his car and a motorcyclist collided at the junction, an accident blackspot. The motorcyclist was named as Peter Woodman, 38, of Burwell Meadow, Witney,

Mr Cable's widow Hilda, a member of Yarnton Parish Council, said she was horrified to learn of her husband's death at the junction she had highlighted as dangerous at parish council meetings. Mrs Cable, 61, of Cassington Road, said: "I'm very angry that work was not done sooner. We wrote as a council to the Highways Agency calling for action.

"Arthur used that route for 11 years. They have got to do something more. Traffic lights and an island are not enough. They should lower the speed limit.

"I expect they put the matter on the shelf. But surely people's lives are worth more than that. I'm so angry. Now I have lost my husband, my children have lost their father and the granddaughters who doted on him have lost their grandpa."

Mrs Cable, a cleaner at St Anne's College, Oxford, said she had a premonition that her husband had been killed that morning. She said: "At the bus stop on my way to work a lady said they had shut the road off because two people were killed in an accident. I just knew it was my Arthur."

Mr Cable's death has shaken the village of Yarnton. The Red Lion pub will shut on Thursday for the funeral, as a mark of respect. The family has received 120 condolence cards from villagers just days after their loss.

His son Stephen said: "Dad was so outgoing he would do anything for anybody. If he met a stranger in the street, they would have a friend for life. He was an incredible, well-loved man who had time for everyone. The whole village has been around. There have been people here we don't even know, paying respects. Our sympathy goes out to the family of the motorcyclist." Mr Cable, a member of the Royal British Legion, leaves sons, Stephen, 35 and Stuart, 38, and granddaughters, Laura, nine and Rosie, six.

*A motorist was killed in a car crash outside a village pub at about 7.15pm yesterday.The man was driving past the White Hart pub in Burford Road, Minster Lovell, near Witney, when his car and another car collided.

Story date: Tuesday 08 February

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