How many deaths needed for action?

David Todd, who was in charge of policing the dual carriageway for almost a decade up to 1992, said he warned then that there had been a series of accidents at Colton Lane End, including a fatal, and traffic levels were increasing daily.

But despite this the go-ahead was given to a new fast-food and accommodation complex nearby, adding to the volume of traffic trying to cross the dual carriageway.

The retired inspector spoke out in support of the Evening Press campaign to "Close the Gaps", which has been launched in the wake of two fatal accidents within the last month at Colton Lane End.

In each case, a vehicle using a gap to cross to the other side of the dual carriageway was struck by a car travelling along the A64.

Mr Todd said one gap had been closed on the A64, at the Buckles Inn, near Bilbrough, in the early 1990s following a series of accidents, but then within weeks work had started on the motel development just down the road near Colton Lane End.

"You have cars coming along there at 70mph, building up speed after the traffic lights at Copmanthorpe and going flat out, and then you have milk wagons coming across there."

He says it would be well worth shutting such gaps and asking people to travel a couple of miles further along the road and use flyovers at Tadcaster or York to get onto the opposite carriageway.

He argues that people often have to travel much further on motorways to get off the road, asking: "How many deaths does it take?"

The Department of Transport said in 1992 that closing the Colton Lane End gap would be difficult because of the need to cater for local traffic. That stance has changed little since, despite the mounting death toll, with a Highways Agency spokesman saying this week that blanket closure of gaps was neither realistic nor practical.

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