A new high-friction surface is being installed at the Betty Haunt Lane junction with Forest Road, near Newport, tonight (Friday).

Six busy junctions are getting the skid-resistant surfacing, including at Vittlefields Cross, and it is hoped they will be made safer.

A woman died and others were seriously injured in a 2019 crash, involving two cars and a bus, at the rural crossroads where Betty Haunt Lane, Forest Road and Whitehouse Road converge.

Fears over the safety of the junction sparked a petition calling for more to be done.

In the aftermath of the crash, a petition gained nearly 7,000 signatures calling for traffic lights to be installed.

Accident data showed there was a 'high probability' of a crash at the junction at least once every year, and it was 'likely' that between 25 and 50 per cent of those accidents could kill or seriously injure someone.

In the last five years, there have been seven recorded collisions there.

As the Isle of Wight County Press previously reported, traffic lights were rejected, but other work was supported: Revealed: What the Isle of Wight Council is recommending to improve fatal road junction.

Kings Road, Bembridge (at its junction with Station Road); Wellington Road, Newport (at its junction with Carisbrooke Road) and St George’s Way in Newport have also had the surface added.

Island Roads has been carrying out the work at all the junctions in partnership with the Isle of Wight Council.

Diversions will be in place.

Meanwhile, work starts at Smallbrook on Monday - statistically the Isle of Wight's most dangerous junction.