Bank holiday marred by 18 deaths on roads

FIVE people died after a head-on collision between two cars in Oxfordshire yesterday, bringing the total of road deaths over the Easter holiday to at least 18, writes Andrew Gliniecki.

Three elderly women travelling in an Austin Metro died instantly in the collision on the A423 at Crowmarsh. One passenger travelling in the other car, a Honda, also died instantly, a second died soon afterwards, and a third was seriously injured.

Last night, one person was killed and at least three seriously injured in a four-vehicle pile up which closed the A52 at Winthorpe, Lincolnshire. On Sunday, Rachel Reed, five, and her sister Maria, seven, died in an accident involving a car that mounted the pavement in Middlesbrough.

Three pensioners died near their homes in Aberangell, Gwynedd, as they returned from Sunday church service. Police said that their car spun into the path of an oncoming car after it collided with an overtaking vehicle on the A470. Eunice Jones, 71, was driving her sister Catherine Pugh, 81, and their brother-in-law John Roberts, 81, to their homes.

Anthony Manetta, 46, from Brighton, East Sussex, and his daughter, Abbey, 19, travelling in a Westfield kit car, and Bertie Williams, 67, and his wife Margaret, 63, travelling in a Montego, all died when their cars collided in Woodingdean, Brighton.

Emma Robinson, 22, of Liphook, Hampshire, died when her car hit a tree near her home, and Dennis Bryce, 40, from Ladywood, Birmingham, died in a similar accident near Redditch, Hereford and Worcester. A 23-year-old woman was killed on the A1 in Hertfordshire when a lorry hit her broken down car.