ANYONE who approves of the philosophy of living each day as if it might be your last but finds it hard to do so, should try living in Fyfield or Lockeridge and running the gauntlet of the A4 every day.

Many people who live in these villages feel they take their lives, and those of their families, in their hands every time they leave home.

Most of my fellow residents have found themselves in mortal danger at the two turnings from the villages on to the A4, either because the through traffic is too fast for the conditions, or because the passing motorist is unaware of the dangers at these junctions.

Most of the residents I have spoken to have experienced all of the following situations and felt they had narrowly escaped serious injury, or even death:

Scenario 1: Turning right out of the Lockeridge road on to clear A4 to be confronted with a car travelling at 70 mph unaware that there is blind junction over the brow of the hill. Car nearly drives into back of vehicle, or is forced into a dangerous overtaking situation.

Scenario 2: Waiting to turn right into Fyfield in filter lane to be confronted by car overtaking from Marlboroughfaced with potential head-on collision.

Scenario 3: Turning left into Fyfield or Lockeridge from Marlborough direction with vehicle at worst a lorry accelerating up and driving too close behind and nearly going into back of car.

It is not only the local residents that stand to benefit from a speed restriction in Fyfield, but also the passing motorist who has no idea about the inherent dangers of this stretch of road and looks to the authorities for guidance as to the appropriate speed for the conditions.

Any driver would acknowledge that in reality the difference between a 50mph sign and an unrestricted sign is not a mere 10mph - it may be two or three times that.

Last month a 21-year-old motorcyclist lost his life on the A4 in an accident at the Lower Fyfield turning.

But do people realise that over five years there have been at least a dozen more accidents on this stretch of road resulting in injury?

Or that the motorcyclist who died last month, died at the same spot as a previous victim nine years earlier?

If an individual had caused this much death and injury near our villages over the same period of time, the police would have launched a full-scale manhunt by now.

But because it is a road that is to blame, are we simply to accept the situation?

I'm told that the reason for the lack of speed restriction or traffic calming measuresis because we have not yet reached our target number of death and injuries to warrant this. Any volunteers?

Angela Norman

Lower Fyfield, near Marlborough