WE WILL have to wait a little while longer to discover the cause of the accident which claimed the life of a well-known Cwmgwili businessman on the A48 last year.

Following a day-long hearing in Llanelli into the death of Roger Bowen, Carmarthenshire coroner John Owen adjourned proceedings until a date to be fixed to consider all the available evidence.

Mr Bowen was killed when his car was struck by a speeding Dyfed Powys Police patrol vehicle as he turned across the eastbound carriageway of the A48 at the Cwmgwili Junction at 9pm on March 3, 2009.

This stretch of the A48 has become somewhat notorious in recent years following a number of deaths.

The campaign for safety improvements has been spearheaded by local residents including Mr Bowen's bereaved family.

So the disclosure that the Cwmgwili junction was rated the 59th accident blackspot in south Wales will have come as something of a shock to anyone who has ever had to negotiate this particular stretch of dual carriageway – particularly in poor visibility.

Yet this, the inquest heard, was cited as the reason why no improvements were carried out at Cwmgwili despite a series of meetings highlighting their need dating back almost a decade.

In other words, Cwmgwili junction was not considered a sufficiently high priority for these safety works to be implemented earlier.

Yet almost everyone who knows this particular junction will surely acknowledge that there is a fundamental problem with its layout.

And solicitors representing the Bowen family were absolutely right to question the wisdom of police officers topping 100mph on this stretch as a matter of course.