A POLICE road safety expert has warned drivers in Hampshire to be careful over the Christmas period after five deaths on the county’s roads in four days.

Lily Butterfield-Godwin and Abbey Rogers, both 19 and from Lyndhurst, were killed when the car they were passengers in hit a wall in the village at one minute past midnight on Saturday.

At 7.40am on Monday, a 26-year-old woman from died after a Fiat collided with a lorry on the M3 near Winchester, and a middle-aged woman was pronounced dead following a crash on the A272 at Sutton Scotney at 6.30am the same day.

And Chandler’s Ford resident David Warren, 73, died after a two-car collision on Newtown Road, Eastleigh, at 10.20am on Tuesday.

Police are investigating all the incidents as they try to establish the circumstances behind the four crashes.

Sgt Rob Heard, Hampshire Constabulary’s road safety officer, would not comment on specific incidents but says that he wants to minimise the number of crashes on the county’s roads.

Sgt Heard said: “We are being very proactive about identifying where we need to be with things, and we have a good working relationship with our partners.

“It’s very good that over the years the number of drunk drivers has gone down, but one death is too many and we are working to try to limit it as much as possible.

“You have peaks and troughs and with those five we have had dreadful consequences for those involved. “It’s not worth the risk.”

Over the festive period police are cracking down on drivers using mobile phones, speeding, not wearing seatbelts, and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Officers are being told to actively look for motorists committing offences, and if caught, drivers can be given the choice between prosecution or taking an educational course.