A CORNWALL councillor has made a heartfelt plea for urgent safety improvements on a notorious stretch of the A30 where a crash led to the deaths of two young brothers earlier this year.

Tobias and Finley Rice were on their way to St Ives from their home in Christchurch, Dorset, during half-term when the car they were travelling in was involved in a multi-vehicle crash near Connor Downs.

Tobias, eight, died at the scene. His five-year-old brother Finley was taken to Bristol Children’s Hospital where he died on Tuesday, June 2.

Mike Thomas, who sits on Cornwall Council, was so shocked and saddened by their deaths that he presented a motion at a full council meeting on Tuesday, July 21, calling for National Highways to carry out an urgent safety review of the section of A30 between Loggans Moor roundabout and the Treswithian interchange.

He told fellow councillors: “I’m sure as those two boys got into the car that fateful day, they trusted that they would have a safe journey. When the family car left on its journey to St Ives, they trusted that National Highways would have sufficient mitigation to prepare for any driver errors that might take place on that road.

“The issue for me is that engineers knew when they were being asked to design that wide two-way extension to the A30 in the early 1980s that roads like this were notorious for high death and serious injury figures, so why was it allowed?

“Decisions about such trunk roads lie with the Department for Transport and, today, National Highways, so they are political decisions.”

He added that plans to dual the stretch of road were scrapped in the 1970s and the wide road has remained an accident blackspot ever since.

Cllr Thomas asked for cross-party support for his motion so the safety of the road is “dramatically improved” and plans are created that will “end the likelihood that lives like Toby and Finley are so tragically lost – we cannot afford to lose such treasure,” he added, his voice cracking with emotion.

Camborne councillor James Ball said: “Having spoken to one of the traffic officers who attended on that fateful day when we lost two young lads, I asked him what he thought was the best thing we could do to do speak to the highways agencies about this.

“He suggested putting matrix boards up – at Tolvaddon and Roseworthy dip – to warn drivers about anything that’s going on ahead of them.”

Cllr Ball asked for the boards to be added to the list of recommendations, which was accepted.

“There have been way too many deaths on this stretch of road,” said St Ives councillor Andrew Mitchell. “Allowing people to gamble and overtake in both directions on a three-lane highway, which should have been a dual carriageway from day one, verges on near criminality by National Highways. It really needs to be addressed.”

Cllr Luke Rogers, who represents St Ives East, Lelant and Carbis Bay, said he welcomed the motion as the road was a “death trap”. He believed the root cause of dangerous driving between Camborne and St Ives was motorists trying to avoid congestion.

Councillors voted in favour of Cornwall Council writing to National Highways to request that the route safety review for the section of the A30 is completed urgently and the result made public, with the council asking that the following be considered.

1. The installation of CCTV cameras that can detect mobile phone usage and seat belt non-compliance. The exploration of other innovative technical solutions to improve the safety of the road.

2. The installation of CCTV cameras to monitor U-turns by motorists and the placement of signage stating that all lawbreakers will be prosecuted, possibly as criminal driving offences.

3. Concrete ‘slipform’ barriers to be installed to prevent U-turns and head-on collisions, with centre carriageway spaces provided for emergency vehicles to use.

4. That all measures that make the route safer, including matrix boards, are prioritised and that National Highways support the funding of this through the next round of funding.

5. A long-term plan is scoped for the dualling of this section of the A30 by 2036