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Tragic toll of M4 accidents
A 21-YEAR-OLD Latvian is the latest fatality on the M4 near Swindon.
Following the tragic death of baby Angel Nguyen, who was thrown from her parents' car after a tyre blow out as it on Sunday afternoon, Ilja Zalans has been named as the road's latest victim.
The young man, who lived in Bristol, was travelling in a rented silver Vauxhall Astra at around 10pm on Tuesday night between junctions 16 for West Swindon and 17 for Chippenham.
His passenger, also a Latvian, was rescued from the car by the emergency services, and he was taken to the Great Western Hospital with chest and head injuries. As the Advertiser went to print, he was in a critical but stable condition.
Police believe the car veered across three lanes of the motorway as well as the hard shoulder, before leaving the road and plunging into a verge.
His is the fifth death in the last 12 months on the M4 between junction 15 for Swindon and junction 17 for Chippenham.
In July the Swindon and Wiltshire Safety Camera Partnership claimed that fatal accidents and those where serious injuries were reported on the county's stretch of the M4 were down by 32 per cent.
Earlier statistics reported by the partnership show the number of fatal or serious injury collisions had fallen from 133 in 2004/5 to 74 in 2005/6, with four and two deaths in these respectively.
Acting inspector for Wiltshire Police's road traffic unit Joe Saunders said motorists' neglect was often at the root of collisions, and urged drivers to carry out winter checks before the season's change.
He said: "Looking at the M4 as a whole, it is not unsafe aslong as it is driven carefully.
"Recently in the west it was found that 25 per cent of people drive with some sort of defect, and even small ones can turn into a catastrophic accident."
Most defects are in the lights or tyres, and can easily be checked by vehicle owners, without going to a mechanic.
According to the Highways Agency there have been 18 deaths and 69 serious injury collisions on the M4 between 1997 and 2006, out of a total of 650 incidents with injuries recorded.
A spokesman for the Government body said: "Although on first glance the accident numbers appear high, consideration needs to be given to the volume of traffic which uses this section of the road network."
But with an accident rate of 8.16 accidents per 100m vehicles between junctions 15 and 16, compared with 6.65 between junctions 16 and 17, both of which are lower than the national average of 9.3.
Tuesday night's incident was followed in early morning fog yesterday, by an accident in which a 7.5-tonne lorry was in a collision with a Honda Civic and a Royal Mail HGV.
Just after 5.15am, when the road was still being reopened following the fatal incident, the lorry failed to stop and slow down as it approached queuing traffic, despite a reduced speed limit of 20mph reportedly being in place.
Police are appealing for witnesses to both these incidents, and anyone with information is asked to call Gablecross police station on 0845 4087000.
PC Gavin Brewster is the officer dealing with Tuesday night's collision, and PC Mark Green is working on yesterday's incident.
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