Witness plea after pensioner killed in Shropshire A49 lorry crash horror

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident after she was struck by a green lorry carrying metal girders at the Crossways junction at Church Stretton.

Paramedics treated the woman at the scene but nothing could be done to save her. Her next of kin have been informed.

The road was closed for four-and-a-half hours after the crash at the junction with Sandford Avenue while police investigated the circumstances of the collision. No arrests have been made.

Officers have appealed for the driver of a small 4x4 pick up travelling behind the lorry to come forward as it is believed they might have vital information about the crash.

The lorry was being driven by a 49-year-old man from Hereford towards Shrewsbury.

The Midlands Air Ambulance from Cosford landed at the scene along with two ambulances and a paramedic in a rapid response vehicle following the crash shortly before 7am yesterday. The woman was pronounced dead at about 7.40am.

The road reopened to traffic at 11.30am.

The accident has prompted renewed calls from local people for more to be done to slow traffic down approaching the traffic lights at the crossroads, which is the main junction to enter Church Stretton from the north, south and east.

John Hawker, spokesman for West Midlands Ambulance Service, said: "Despite resuscitation attempts by medics the patient was later confirmed dead at the scene."

A spokesman for West Mercia Police said the force was appealing for information from witnesses to yesterday's tragedy.

"We particularly wish to speak to the driver of a small 4x4 type pick up, white or silver in colour, that is believed to have been travelling behind the HGV," he said.

A woman from Church Stretton, who did not wish to be named, said: "I heard the helicopter when I woke up but I didn't think anything of it. But then I walked up to the lights and saw the low loader there with steel girders on it. Then I heard about the woman being killed. It's really sad but it isn't the first time we've had a death on that road. It's lethal. They approach those traffic lights so fast. It's not so much the speed of the road it's people not abiding to the limit."

Concerns about safety at the junction at the entrance to Church Stretton had been raised only two months ago, as councillors said traffic travelling down the 60mph trunk road was failing to slow down, or even stop at the traffic lights, as it went through the town. At the time Lee Chapman, Shropshire councillor for Church Stretton and Craven Arms, said the situation was "an accident waiting to happen".

Speaking today, he said: "This is an awful tragedy, and awful for the family. My sympathies go out to the relatives of the woman who was killed, it is an appalling thing to happen.

"Both Church Stretton Town Council and Shropshire Council have highlighted our concerns to the police and the Highways Agency about that area.

"It is not clear from this accident if anything like that happened, we don't know the circumstances – but clearly there have been concerns about safety at that spot.

"I'm sure the both the police and the Highways Agency will want to carry out their own investigations and we will have to wait for the outcome of that."

At the end of last month the same stretch of road saw a serious crash between a bus and an articulated lorry, with four taken to hospital, just south of Church Stretton at the junction with the B5477 to Little Stretton.

Anyone with information about yesterday's accident should call West Mercia Police on 101 quoting incident 66S of November 17.