SURELY it is time that something was done about the A48 on the approaches to the Woolaston Inn? A fortnight ago there were two crashes here both caused by ice. One was fatal and in the other, only divine intervention allowed the passengers to walk away relatively unscathed. Two or three years ago the bus shelter here was demolished and an hour earlier a car overturned under very similar circumstances.

Coming West from Lydney, there is a speed camera at Colthart's garage. This is quite the wrong spot for it.

Cars have already been slowed by the single lane approach to the Nether­end junction and the solid white lines maintaining the single lane.

A car's speed at the camera is naturally under 50 mph. But a clear road ahead means that vehicles are both overtaking and achieving speeds of 70 mph to 80 mph by the time they reach the bottom of the hill.

At the same time, cars and tractors are entering the system from Station Road (opposite the Wool­aston Inn).

Turning left towards Chepstow they are hooted at by approaching vehicles who are ignoring the chevrons and overtaking. At the same time, vehicles turning right towards Lydney are, of necessity, stuck in the middle of the road. It is impossible to see what traffic is approaching from Chepstow without manoeuvring in this way.

But these dangers are as nothing when compared to those that await the unwary arriving at the same spot on the eastbound carriageway. Coming past Peters Cross, the drivers take the opportunity to pass slower moving vehicles at truly frightening speed. As they approach the brow of the hill where the view of the road ahead is severly limited, and just before the Woolaston Inn, they are still overtaking and quite ignoring the chevrons in the right hand lane and any cars that may be attempting to turn right into Station Road. Near misses here are a daily occurance and this patch has seen more than its fair share of bangs and prangs.

Just before the Woolaston Inn is Laurel Lane. This is an unmade track leading to fields and is a steep incline. Water runs off it after no more than a shower of rain and it pools onto the A48. It is this water that turned to ice a fortnight ago. Cars approaching it, particularly at night when the road is clear, come to it at considerable speed (no speed camera here to inhibit them) and obviously lose control of the vehicle.

I am not suggesting the latest tragedy was necessarily caused by excessive speed – a terribly cold night and minimal grit were inviting just such an awful event.

Time and again we are witness to or involved in these dramas. On one occasion, after complaints, the police appeared in a car and parked at Station Road (I believe to monitor the speed) – a rather pointless exercise as their car was clearly visible from the speed camera so obviously the drivers were behaving themselves. I am not advocating that the police should hide from view, rather that a more pro-active approach to safety should be considered.

Although not in favour of indiscriminate use of speed cameras, I do think that under these circumstances cameras correctly sited on either side of the road would greatly improve the situation. – Mary Bailey, Woolaston.