A FATAL crash on the A429 from Malmesbury to Cirencester has prompted calls to improve the safety of the road.

On Thursday last week a 38-year-old man died from injuries he suffered in a three-vehicle crash on the A429 near Kemble Business Park.

The crash involved a blue Audi driven by the 38-year-old, a white Ford Transit van and a lorry.

Two women involved in the collision were taken to Great Western Hospital in Swindon for treatment, but their injuries were not considered serious.

The road was closed for several hours following the collision around 3pm, causing a build up of traffic between the two towns.

Accidents on the road are not a new occurrence, but several serious collisions in the last few months have led to a demand for action.

Malmesbury resident Robert Peel believes a number of measures could prevent further crashes.

He is calling for a lower speed limit, a notice board on the road to detail the number of accidents, and a sign warning drivers of the upcoming junction.

He said: “I think that whole stretch of road is a problem. It’s a very dangerous road.

It wouldn’t cost much to put in a sign with accident information or a reduce speed sign.”

He added: “I don’t know what the fatality rate is like on that stretch but I know there was a fatal outside the business park three or four years ago.”

He also suggested that the number of accidents on the road, which connects the two counties, might be recorded by Gloucestershire County Council and Wiltshire Council separately, with accidents happening on both sides of the border.

If this is the case it could be that each side only sees half of the recorded crashes on the road, meaning that it might not seem like an accident hotspot to either council individually.

“The question is: is anything being done with the data?” asked Robert.

Cllr Simon Killane, Malmesbury’s representative on Wiltshire Council, said the council would look into the issues surrounding the crash.

However, he said the authority cannot make snap decisions on which roads should considered 'dangerous' and thus need urgent action.

There was a crash on the A433 north of Tetbury at the same time as the A429 accident.