Archive - Monday, 15 October 2001


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Call for change after road death

A GRIEVING friend of road crash victim Oliver Ellwood has demanded changes to a dangerous stretch of road where his young life ended.

Stephen Glanfield told the News & Journal that the off camber section of the A419 road at Killdevil Hill, Cirencester must be made safer, or another life will be lost.

Private Ellwood, a paratrooper, died when he lost control of his Renault 19 car on September 22. Last December Brimscombe man Neil Stallon, 20, was killed in a road accident nearby.

"Something needs to be done," said Mr Glanfield, who lives at Amberley and stands on Minchinhampton parish and Stroud district councils.

"It's such a dangerous spot because as you drive down the hill to the right, the camber drops off to the left. I always go along there with great care, even in a four-wheel drive vehicle."

Simon Ellwood, Pte Oliver's father, is Mr Glanfield's business partner and also lives in Amberley.

The loss of Pte Ellwood has hit his family and friends very hard - 200 people attended his full military funeral in Weymouth last week.

Although he had been in the Army just 21 months, he had already seen action in Sierra Leone. He was one of the first to take on the rebel West Side Boys and was heading for the SAS.

"He had a startling career in front of him," said Mr Glanfield. "And now he's gone. He will be missed by a lot of people."

Gloucestershire County Council spokesman Sandra Ashenford said there have been three accidents at Killdevil Hill over the last three years. She confirmed that two were fatal.

"In the last two years Gloucestershire County Council has introduced a 40mph limit and pout in a gateway feature, a red surface and signage imposing the speed limit," she said.

"There's nothing immediately planned to do anything more at the moment but we will carry on looking at it with regard to this most recent accident and the subsequent police report and coroner's inquiry.

"The camber of the road has not been mentioned before."