Police have appealed to drivers to slow down after an unprecedented toll of 16 road deaths in just four weeks on Essex roads.

The fatalities have also been compounded by an increasing number of serious accidents - the latest of which occurred on Tuesday morning, involving a lorry and a car.

One of the county police targets this year is to try to reduce the number of road casualties, but unfortunately they have been rising.

To improve matters high visibility policing is being undertaken with traffic officers spending as much time on the road as possible. Latest figures reveal they are on patrol for almost 83 per cent of their shift hours.

Traffic police chief Supt Doug Adams, an officer with 29 years service, said speed featured in a number of the 16 death crashes.

He said not taking account of changes in road conditions and driver fatigue were also involved in some accidents.

Supt Adams said they were trying to see if there were any reasons for the increasing number of road deaths, but a common denominator had almost certainly been ruled out.

The traffic chief has already said that he hopes speeding becomes as anti social as drink driving.

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