GRIEVING father Mike Embling last night begged Oxfordshire drivers to kill their speed and drive safely to stay alive.

Mr Embling's son Grant, 20, died in a crash on September 26, as he rode his motorcycle on the A4130 near Didcot.

He was one of the 47 people who have died on the county's roads so far this year.

Family and friends packed Peter's Church in Didcot for Grant's funeral on Thursday. He had recently completed a forensics course and was planning a backpacking trip around the world.

Mr Embling, 63, of Sinodun Road, Didcot, said that he and his wife Jan, 58, were still trying to come to terms with their son's death.

But he decided to join road safety campaigners in calling for drivers to be careful in the coming weeks, because the death toll is already higher than for the whole of last year, when 40 died.

By October last year, there had been 34 road deaths.

The chartered surveyor said he had not been able to work since his son's death and added: "The whole family is devastated by Grant's death - it's a life sentence, but we will just have to learn to live with it.

"I would urge all drivers to slow down - particularly in the dark. I have had drivers stopping just short of my bumper when I have been on my motorbike on the A34.

"The road Grant got killed on is a dangerous road and needs to be better lit, or made a dual carriageway.

"He was a very popular young man, and we never realised how many friends he had until he died - he was like a candle that burned out too quickly."

Mr Embling also urged drivers not to use handheld mobile phones and urged the Government to introduce tougher legislation so that drivers using mobiles would get penalty points on their driving licences.

Road safety officials fear the number of deaths this year will contiune to rise, but they hope it will not top the total number of fatalities for 2003 - 64.

Dave Etheridge, is head of Oxfordshire Fire Service's 365 Alive campaign, which aims to educate 15 to 16-year-olds in schools about safety before they start to learn to drive.

Mr Etheridge said: "During the past 10 years, 477 people have lost their lives on Oxfordshire's roads, while during the same period 37 people have died in fires.

"As a result, we're diverting some resources into liaising with partner agencies to try to drive down the number of accidents on Oxfordshire's roads. Forty-seven deaths is much too high, but for me personally, one family's death on the roads is too much."

The 365 Alive campaign gives hard-hitting video presentations to pupils at schools across the county.

Geoff Barrell, principal road safety officer at Oxfordshire County Council, said the increase in fatalities could be the result of a statistical blip and that there had been an overall reduction in road deaths over the past six years. He added: "We will continue to spread the message to drivers about cutting speed and taking care on the roads."

Malcolm Collis, head of Thames Valley Police's traffic unit, said: "The public can do more to help by driving responsibly, making sure drivers and their passengers are wearing seatbelts, and not breaking the law by drink-driving or using a hand-held mobile phone while driving. We're doing everything we can to get this type of safety message out to the public."

David Robertson, the county council's cabinet member for transport, said: "Each time a death is reported it's like a dagger through the heart for our staff, but it's 10 times worse for each family involved."

TOLL ON ROADS THE highest number of road deaths in Oxfordshire since local government boundary changes in 1974 was in 1978, when 99 people were killed.

There has been a 24 per cent reduction in fatal and serious road injuries in the county since 1996.

The number of deaths on the county's roads in recent years are as follows:

  • 2000: 63
  • 2001: 49
  • 2002: 37
  • 2003: 64
  • 2004: 33
  • 2005: 40
  • 2006: 47 (until October) Source: Oxfordshire County Council