PEOPLE in West Somerset are calling for the district’s roads to be improved and speed limits lowered after a spate of accidents in the past week.

Three people were taken to hospital on Tuesday evening after a three-vehicle collision near Williton.

The accident at Washford Cross was one of four on the A39 and A358 since Friday.

A man was taken to Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton with neck and lower back pain and two women including a 67-year-old woman suffering leg, chest and back pain.

All three were rescued after fire crews removed the roof of a Honda which had been involved in the accident with a VW Golf and a Fiat.

On Friday, Washford Hill was closed both ways for almost three hours after a vehicle knocked down a telegraph pole.

On Sunday, a driver was taken to hospital after a VW was involved in a collision at Bilbrook, closing the road for two hours.

Motorists suffered delays again on Monday when a Landover and a Honda were involved in an accident next to Nethercott Lane on the A358.

It is not clear whether speed was a factor in any of the accidents, but they have caused long-standing concerns about the number of crashes on West Somerset’s roads to resurface.

Williton parish councillor Rebecca James said: “As a parish council this is something we’ve been campaigning about for years, and as a resident, too, this does concern me.

“We want to see the speed limit lowered, especially coming into Williton.

“There’s a limit of 30mph in place, but people don’t take any notice.

“This is the problem – the A39 and A358 are too bendy, and there’s nowhere for drivers to overtake, so people overtake on dangerous bits of the road and accidents happen.

“Something needs to be done, but who knows how or what because we have the National Park on one side and the sea on the other.”

The parish council has been successful in asking EDF Energy for a roundabout at Washford Cross if Hinkley Point C nuclear power station goes ahead.

Cllr James said: “I really think it will make a difference because people will have to slow down and give way.

“At the moment there’s so much confusion as to who has the right of way at the junctions.”

Minehead resident Jim Butterworth told the County Gazette: “The A39 is inconvenient, dangerous and quite inadequate, failing to serve the traffic of the 21st Century.”