FOR the eighth time in five years Wiltshire police officers have had the thankless task of knocking on doors to inform a family that a member has died on the busy road from Swindon to Salisbury which takes motorists though the Ogbournes, Marlborough, Burbage and the Collingbournes.

Statistics for the last two or three decades would show dozens have people have lost their lives in accidents on this busy commercial and holiday route.

It is as dangerous a road as the A 36 which runs down through the Wylye Valley from Warminster to Salisbury and which is deservedly known as Death Alley.

But why? That is the question which no one has yet been able to answer. Or if they have come up with answers they have not been able to stop the carnage.

The side of the A346/338 route down through Marlborough and Savernake Forest is littered with bouquets grimly marking the spot where many have died.

Many of us know of families who have been left with that unfillable void in their lives which follows the policeman's knock.

The most recent fatality on Wednesday, June 29, involved a 27-year-old motorcyclist who was heading from Marlborough to his home in Swindon.

There will be an inquest at which the coroner will decide how the young man died.

However, no number of inquests have or can alter the fact that people are continuing to be killed on this innocent looking road.

The Salisbury and Devizes MPs are supporting the working party set up to look into ways the route can be improved and it has called for traffic calming measures and lower speed limits in villages along it.

Where the motorcyclist died last week is already governed by a 50mph limit stretching between the two Ogbournes and which was introduced just a few years ago.

It is also clearly marked with a double white system which shows the very few, short stretches where drivers can overtake.

Members of the working party are not sure what measures can be taken to cut the toll of deaths and injuries along this road.

Wiltshire Highways Department has asked its maintenance contractor, Ringway Parkman, if it can come up with any suggestions and the report is due later this year.

Maybe we should also be asking our MPs to take up with Parliament the current penchant for more powerful and faster cars, motorcycles and all other vehicles.

Which of us has not been overtaken when we are doing the legal 70mph limit on the motorway by White Van Man?

Why do delivery vans need to be capable of speeds which top the legal maximum for the UK by 30 or more miles per hour?

Why do family saloons have to be capable of speeds of 100mph or more which even the most basic models can do nowadays?

Watch the motoring programmes on television and note that one of the factors most lauded about new models is their top speed and their rate of acceleration.

So is it motorists who are guilty or is it society because we boast about, the ability of modern cars to get from 0 to 60mph in the time it takes to sneeze, many of which can do double the legal maximum speed with ease.

There is the old adage about the chicken who crossed the road because it was there. Maybe the same can be said about the way in which many motorists hurtle away from traffic lights at amber and ignore speed limits. They have the power and, because it is there, they use it.

When did you last hear a motor programme presenter complain that a car was too potent or too fast. You haven't because speed is perceived as sexy.

It's a shame the people who promote power and speed as a major factor in buying a vehicle today do not have to be present when that poor police officer has to knock on that door.