Kill speed to cut road deaths

Mr Embling's son Grant, 20, died in a crash on September 26, as he rode his motorbike 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."

Lives cut short

Among those who have lost their lives on Oxfordshire's road this year were:

The Dowling Family - More than 500 people packed into a Staffordshire church for the funeral of a family of four who died in a four-vehicle crash on the A34 in Oxfordshire.

Malcolm Dowling, 46, his wife Janice, 42, and their sons, Richard, 16 and George, 11, pictured right died in the accident on the northbound carriageway near the Islip junction on August 1.

They were on their way home to Lichfield after a family holiday in Brittany, France.

The family died when their Peugot 307 crashed in a pileup which involved a car transporter, a lorry and four cars. Police are still investigating the incident.

Dr Margaret Davidson - A doctor at The Horton Hospital, in Banbury, Dr Davidson, was driving home to Kidlington when her car was hit head-on by another car driven by Nolan Haworth on the A4260 near Deddington in May.

Haworth, 19, did not have a driving licence and was in a borrowed, uninsured, car. He was sentenced to four years' youth custody for causing Dr Davidson's death by dangerous driving.

Just minutes before the crash, Haworth was seen "driving like a joyrider", overtaking on blind bends.

Earlier this month, Dr Davidson's mother Elizabeth criticised a decision by prosecutors not to seek an increase in the four-year sentence.

'He has devastated our whole family'

Whenever Jed Kilty sees drivers using mobile phones at the wheel it makes his skin crawl, and brings back the memory of his brother's death.

John Kilty was killed when he drove into the path of a lorry which had spun across the A34 after ploughing into a stationary HGV near Oxford.

Richard Brown, convicted at Oxford Crown Court last week of causing death by dangerous driving, had stopped on the inside lane close to Botley to make a mobile phone call on December 14, 2004. He is due to be sentenced on December 4 and has been warned to expect to go to prison.

Mr Kilty, 46, who is also an HGV driver, said: "It was utter stupidity to park on a dual carriageway. He (Brown) is supposed to be a driver with 30 years experience.

"He has devastated our whole family, my mother, my father, John's three brothers and two sisters, his four sons, John Paul, David, Daniel and Marc.

"His youngest Marc has just turned four and was two when it happened. He doesn't know who his dad is, apart from in photos."

Mr Kilty, whose brother lived with him in County Durham for the last four months of his life, added: "I have seen and followed lorries which have been wobbling all over the road because the drivers are on the phone.

"It has to stop. If you use a phone on the road you could die, or kill someone.

"John was blameless, he was just doing his job."