Calming measures 'not working' on Shropshire's A49

That is the view of Councillor David Mills, chairman of Craven Arms Town Council, in the wake of three serious accidents – one of which saw a 75-year-old woman travelling in the back of a private ambulance killed – on the road in the south of the county in the space of 36 hours.

Councillor Mills said over the years all kinds of measures had been taken to try to raise the safety awareness of drivers on the stretch of road, which is single carriageway and winding with few safe places to overtake, despite being the main artery for traffic from Shrewsbury to Hereford.

But a high volume of serious accidents still keep on happening, he said.

"It's just the sheer volume of traffic using this north to south road.

"Long term it really should be dual carriageway, but I don't know if that's ever going to happen. The more signs we put up the more people ignore them.

"We put in traffic calming measures but it doesn't make any difference. Personally I really don't know what the answer is."

He said Britain's impending exit from the EU had also cast uncertainty over the funding of the national road infrastructure.

"A bit more maintaining of the road wouldn't go amiss but long term we don't know what we're going to get, what the investment in the roads is going to be."

The elderly woman died after the private ambulance she was being transported in was involved in a three-vehicle crash at 7pm on Monday, at the turn for Strefford, just north of Craven Arms.

An orange Ford Fiesta and a black Volkswagen Amarok collided at the junction, before the Fiesta collided with the ambulance head-on.

The woman suffered serious injuries and died later at hospital, while the ambulance driver and an attendant in the back of the vehicle were also hospitalised.

The three occupants of the Fiesta, all aged 19 to 20, were also injured, while the occupants of the Amarok were not hurt.

A full investigation is now under way into what happened.

Just 24 hours earlier there was another head-on collision just south of Dorrington, north of Church Stretton, between a Land Rover Freelander and a Leyland DAF box van, with the two occupants of the Freelander taken to hospital with leg, abdomen and back injuries.

On Sunday afternoon an Audi, a Ford Focus and a Citroen were involved in a crash at Stokesay. At least two people had to be helped by emergency services.