A FATHER whose 35-year-old son died at an accident blackspot on the outskirts of Wellington has pleaded with the county Highways Department to make the A38 safer before more lives are lost.

Car enthusiast Elliot Sparks died instantly when his Toyata Chaser crashed on a road which has long been regarded as dangerous. The stretch of road where he died has claimed the lives of at least nine people in the last 20 years.

Elliot’s father Paul, of West Buckland, has been been speaking after the driver of the vehicle involved in the collision, David Knight, was jailed for two years and five months at Taunton Crown Court on Tuesday for his part in the incident.

Knight 46, of Richards Close, admitted causing the death by dangerous driving of Elliot Sparks, of Dyers Close, West Buckland.

His father, who owns nearly four acres of land alongside the road where the accident took place, said: “I think the sentence should be been more harsh. He is likely to be out of prison in 15 months with good behaviour. He has obviously not learnt his lesson because he has been caught speeding again since the accident.”

Referring to the toll of lives lost on the road, Mr Sparks said the Highways Department had been slow to act - and reducing the speed limit to 50mph should have been done 20 years ago. He added: “A barrier alongside the road where Elliot died might have prevented his death and others too.

“Elliot was not innocent in the incident, but he lost his life. If it had been the other way around, Elliot might have lived and been in court this week.

“There are still questions to be asked about the incident which a coroner would have been able to deal with more deeply.”

The former Mayor of Wellington Janet Lloyd, who lives very close to the notorious stretch of road, said in June she was disappointed more had not been done to improve road safety.

She was talking after the inquest of property developer Simon Lane, 54, who died in a crash on the A38 at White Ball, near the Beambridge, in 2019.

See this week's Wellington Weekly News for full report of the court hearing