Bad driving is to blame for carnage (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Bad driving is to blame for carnage

15090/01'DEATH VALLEY' FEATURE: FIRE officers tasked with saving lives at crash scenes have urged the emergency services to unite against the increasing death toll.

Warminster Fire Brigade was called in to rescue two passengers and two drivers from the fatal crash on the A36 on Thursday.

But after a debriefing following an operation where 26-year-old Robert Griffin was found dead in his car fire officers have called for the carnage to end.

Chris Trimble, chief fire officer at Warminster Fire Brigade said: "People think it is never going to happen to them, we all think we are the best drivers in the world. But some of us may lack the concentration.

"The emergency services now need to get together and stop all these deaths.

"When we release someone who is trapped and they live then it's very satisfying.

"But when people are dying in the vehicles and we are standing around thinking that in the next half-an-hour this person will be lost it can be very tough. I have been helping to cut people out of cars on these roads for 20 years and it does affect you in a number of ways.

"I would think signs on the side of the road reading 'a man died here in a car crash, don't let it be you next' would get the message home.

"We can put fires out and lower the risk but these deaths on our roads must be stopped."