FOUR people were killed in traffic accidents in 24 hours on Oxfordshire’s roads.

Police were last night still trying to identify the driver and passenger of a black Vauxhall Astra who died when it crashed on the M40 between junction 10 and 9 on Monday night, closing one lane of the southbound carriageway until yesterday afternoon.

Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said it attended the scene shortly after 8.45pm and had to put out a blaze in the car.

A 43-year-old woman from Abingdon killed in a collision in Sutton Courtenay on Monday afternoon was a passenger in a blue and silver Mitsubishi L200 which hit a tree, police said.

The driver, a 27-year-old man, was still in hospital last night with serious injuries, Thames Valley Police added.

The final fatality was a man in his 70s killed in a four-vehicle collision on the A420 near Faringdon shortly after 9am yesterday, although another man suffered life-threatening injuries.

A Ford Focus, a Toyota Auris and a Ford Transit van were involved in a crash with a Ford Transit lorry.

Police spokeswoman Hannah Jones said the driver of the Ford van, a man in his 70s, died at the scene and his next of kin had been informed. She said the driver of the lorry was airlifted to the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, and three others were left with minor injuries.

The tragedies came after figures released earlier this year revealed the number of motorists killed or seriously injured on Oxfordshire’s roads has been steadily increasing for the past three years.

The 378 people killed or seriously injured in 2014 was an increase of 51 from the previous year’s 327.

The M40 has been the biggest cause for concern, with the Government announcing earlier this year it was reviewing the safety of the road.

Highways England said the number of crashes on the M40 was steadily increasing and it was looking into the possible causes.

Littleworth resident and former parish council chairman David Fielding added today that there had always been problems on the A420 in the area, but they were getting worse.

He said: “It now takes a good five minutes to get out of Littleworth onto the A420 by which time traffic is backed up behind you and it only takes one careless driver.”

Vale of White Horse District Councillor for Sutton Courtenay Gervase Duffield said the speed limit on the B4016 had been lowered to 40mph some years ago after a fatal collision on the road. In January this year a 25-year-old man died after a three-car collision on the same stretch of road near Littleworth.