THE long, frustrating but successful campaign to win massive changes to the A449 - the most dangerous road in the county, according to police - eventually had a remarkable effect.

The greatest consequence is that there are people alive today who would undoubtedly have been added to the long list of fatal casualties, had the new traffic measures not been adopted.

That's the irresistible thought, today, as we digest West Mercia police's figures on another stretch of road through Worcestershire.

How many of us would have guessed that the A44 between Worcester and Evesham has racked up such a startling death toll while the A449 has taken all the headlines?

We're tempted to say that it has quietly been killing mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters for almost as many years. But, of course, roads don't kill people. Drivers do that.

So far, we've seen strips of red 'gateway' tarmac heralding a 30 or 40mph limit through villages along the route as the main strategy to cut deadly speed.

Beyond that, none of the measures which tamed the A449 can really be applied to the A44, whether that's from the western edge of Herefordshire, where it arrives in the two counties, or the eastern side of Broadway, where it leaves.

So it comes down to the driver.

Doubtless most of the 200 or so people brought to book by West Mercia's force-wide speeding blitz will feel hard done-by.

Doubtless, too, grieving relatives for whom the road holds the grimmest memories will feel worse.

We're sure they'll endorse PC John Roberts' plea that we all begin to regard speeding as being as socially unacceptable as drink-driving.

On the basis that any of us could end up being the victim - if not the cause - of the next fatality, it's a message we should all take on board.