‘Devastating’ crashes on a busy Reading road must lead to changes, the Leader of the Green Party for Reading Borough Council has said.

Two people taken to hospital in May after separate collisions in King’s Road were the latest casualties on a thoroughfare which has seen 31 injuries between 2019 and 2021.

Cllr Rob White has been calling for council action since a lorry and a motorbike crashed in December last year, leaving a 17-year-old girl in a coma.

"Every accident here is devastating for the people involved. Unfortunately there is a steady stream of accidents in this area with two very close together recently,” said the councillor.

“King's Road is a busy road. With Reading College there are lots of people moving around and the bus lanes complicate things further.”

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Cllr White said his party want to see better pothole maintenance, a section of 20mph limit like the one near Alfred Sutton primary school and a larger police presence to catch speeding cars.

“We don't think that there is a silver bullet here but we think there are things the council and police can do."

There have been six fatalities in King’s Road in the 10 years ending 2021, most of which occurred at the junction with Wokingham Road, according to Crash Map data.

In the three years ending 2021, nine ‘serious’ accidents occurred.

Data for 2022 is not available yet, but the Chronicle reported how on May 20, a pedestrian was hospitalized in a collision with a bus near Cemetery Junction.

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On May 12, a woman was taken to hospital with serious injuries following a crash between a cyclist and a taxi.

A spokesperson for Reading Borough Council said: “The Council is aware of the relatively high number of incidents along Kings Road and reviews accident data that is supplied in arrears by the Police.

“From the nature of the incidents and summaries of Police investigations, it is challenging to identify reasonable engineering solutions could be effective in mitigating recurrences.

“The Council has not yet been contacted by the police regarding input into investigations for the more recent incident, which we would have expected to be if it related to the road layout.

“The numbers of casualties in Kings Road is of course concerning and the Council will continue to co-operate with police colleagues.”

The spokesperson added the council coordinate with Thames Valley Police when serious or fatal road traffic incidents occur to identify patterns.

“In some instances alterations could be considered to reduce the likelihood of recurrence, but that is not always the case, particularly where incidents are occurring for reasons that are outside of the control of the highways authority.

“The Council cannot comment on individual accidents while police investigations are in progress, nor some of the sensitive details of these incidents, other than to say every incident is of course extremely concerning.”