WITHIN two months last year, four people were killed on a short stretch of the A64 between Welburn and Crambeck while trying to cross the road on foot.

Julie Gough, 52, and her partner Dave Tinker, 50, were killed while crossing from a bus stop to their home in Crambeck just before midnight on May 13.

They were hit by a minibus, which could not see them because of a dip in the road.

A few weeks later Charles McLaughlin, 53, and his wife Judith, 58, were killed crossing the same road slightly further south. They were trying to get from a bus stop to the Jamie’s Cragg holiday park. It was a dark night, and they were hit by a car whose driver did not see them until too late.

Recording verdicts of accidental death, coroner Michael Oakley said pedestrians had to ‘take their lives into their own hands’ when crossing.

Mr Oakley said he would write to the Department of Transport calling for a review into proper lighting, traffic islands and possibly the relocation of bus stops on the road. But he added: “Clearly the only proper way to deal with it would be a bridge.”

He is absolutely right. Given the vast amounts of money spent on road building and maintenance, it seems little short of obscene that more attention is not given to the needs of people trying to get across major roads such as the A64 on foot.

Mick Smith, a friend of Dave Tinker and Julie Gough, said the coroner’s summation had been spot on. “You’ve got two bus stops there and no provision of safety for people to cross the road,” he said.

That has to change.