A woman was killed yesterday and eight other people injured during another day of gridlock and pandemonium on Oxfordshire's roads.

The fatal accident on the westbound carriageway of the A40, near Wheatley, was one of four collisions on county highways.

It came just three days after the county was brought to a standstill following a series of accidents on the A34 and on the day preparatory work started on the £3.75m scheme to improve the Green Road Roundabout on the A40 at Headington.

On Friday, thousands of people were stuck in traffic jams for up to four hours following a spate of crashes in which one man died.

Following yesterday's accident, a woman passenger was pronounced dead at the scene.

The male driver, who suffered serious injuries, was trapped for 40 minutes while paramedics treated him and firefighters battled to free him. The vehicle was one of three involved in the collision.

Two other people, a man and a woman, were taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital suffering from minor injuries.

A second collision bet- ween a car and a van on the A415 at Longworth resulted in two people being taken to the JR with injuries which are not thought to be life-threatening.

Two people were also taken from the scene of a crash at Wheatley Road in Garsington and one person was taken from a collision between two cars at Lindworth Close, Headington, Oxford.

None of these injuries was said to be serious.

During Friday's chaos the A34 dual carriageway was closed in both directions, leaving drivers stranded as emergency crews dealt with the injured and cleared damaged vehicles from the road.

Other roads also became congested as motorists tried to find alternative routes to avoid the jams.

In the worst accident, a male pedestrian died after being struck by a Ford Escort on the northbound carriageway of the A34. The car driver was taken to the JR with facial injuries.