Eighteen people have died on Oxfordshire's roads so far this year - a drop of 12 on the same period last year.

The year began with the death of 22-year-old pedestrian James Metcalfe. Mr Metcalfe, of Tyrells Way, Sutton Courtenay, was struck by a car as he walked home along the A4130 near Milton Heights in the early hours of New Year's Day.

He was one of ten people who died in January, the highest figure for that month for at least a decade.

In February, two people were killed on the county's roads; no fatalities were recorded in March, but four people died in April.

In the most recent fatal accident, David McDowell, 52, of East Hendred, and Samantha Gibbs, from Gloucestershire, were killed when their skip lorry overturned on the A420 near Faringdon on Tuesday.

During the period up to May last year, 30 people were killed in road accidents. The average during the past ten years has been 22.

Phil Crossland, the county council's group manager for road safety and traffic safety, said: "There have been a spate of single-vehicle collisions, which is worrying.

"It obviously rings alarm bells, because any fatal accident really is unacceptable. We should be living in a society where we don't put up with ten people a month or 63 people a year dying on the roads. If that happened on the railway, there'd be a huge outcry."

Mr Crossland said when the county council learned of a fatal accident, it checked to see if any other similar accidents had happened on the same stretch of road, or if introducing any traffic engineering such as speed bumps would help.

But he added that the onus was on drivers to use appropriate speed - which may be less than the official speed limit for that area.

Thames Valley Police's head of traffic specialists Insp Malcolm Collis said although January's figures were higher than last year, there was no reason to suspect this would continue throughout the year.

He said: "Fortunately, in real terms, fatal accidents are fairly rare, especially in relation to the number of vehicles on the road and the mileage covered."

Last year 63 people were killed on the county's highways network.