Four men killed in car crash near Cheltenham

Four men have died in a car crash on the A436 in Gloucestershire.

Officers discovered a black Renault Clio that had left the road and collided with a tree in Ullenwood, near Cheltenham, shortly before 2am on Sunday, Gloucestershire police said.

“Urgent work has been ongoing to identify all of those involved and notify their next of kin,” they added.

The road between the A417 Air Balloon roundabout and Severn Springs has now reopened.

Paul Hodgkinson, the Gloucestershire county councillor for the area, said he did not know the circumstances of what happened on Sunday but that accidents and fatalities have happened on the road previously.

Speaking to PA Media, he said: “It’s terrible, I was just horrified that four people have lost their lives and my heart goes out to their families, it really does.”

He added: “Certainly accidents have been a regular occurrence, with the road being exceptionally busy. One thing that I would say is that residents and I have called for ages for improvements to the road because we feel it is unsafe.

“Not only is it busy but we have traffic that we believe goes too fast for the road. We are still waiting for major improvements to happen.”

A spokesperson for Gloucestershire county council said: “We’re saddened to hear about the tragic accident that happened in the early hours of this morning.

“Our thoughts go out to the families and friends of those lost. It would be wrong to jump to any conclusions during an ongoing investigation.

“As with any incident of this kind we will conduct a review along with other agencies and take the necessary action where needed.”

Anyone with information about the collision or with dashcam footage is asked to contact the police via an online form , quoting “incident 52 of 21 July”.