URGENT consideration must be given to improving safety along the coast road where four Risca men lost their lives.

That is the view from residents and visitors to the area of the Gwent levels where the weekend's tragedy has left in its wake a mixture of sadness and anger.

Jo Knight, landlady of the Lighthouse pub which is less than half a mile from the crash site, hopes the incident, irrespective of its circumstances, will spur the powers-that-be to introduce safety measures.

"The atmosphere around here is very sad and it is difficult because we all use this road," she said.

"We don't know how this happened yet but we do know that safety-wise, this road is ridiculous.

"It is over-used by lorries and speeds can get high. If you have got a lorry coming towards you doing 50 or 60 miles an hour, which can happen, there is nothing to swerve on to, because there is very little verge much of the way, especially where the reens are.

"It is a winding road, narrow in parts, with sharp bends and no crash barriers and it is used by a lot of vehicles as a detour to avoid the main roads.

"The reens are a problem because a lot of them are overgrown. They can be deceptive. From the road they do not look bad, but they can be quite deep."

Mrs Knight said the stretch of the Severn estuary running close to the pub is popular with fishermen and some of her customers knew the victims by sight or to speak to.

"There is always the possibility that something like this might happen along here.

"It's awful but hopefully now we might get something done about this road."