NEARLY a year to the day after a pensioner was killed at a busy road junction in the heart of Winchester new safety measures have been installed to prevent a repeat of the tragedy.

Great-grandmother Gladys Waite died on December 28 last year, just hours after being hit by a bus at the junction of St George's Street and Upper Brook Street next to the Brooks Shopping Centre.

The 90-year-old, who had lived in the city for most of her life, was knocked down on a stretch of road branded dangerous by Winchester's civic chiefs.

Road safety campaigners along with the city's MP Mark Oaten and local residents groups had long warned that the junction was an accident waiting to happen because people often mistakenly believe the whole area is traffic free.

In fact the junction is used throughout the day by scores of buses leaving the central bus station.

Now though, Hampshire County Council has finished installing a new pedestrian-controlled traffic light at the spot at which Gladys, formerly of Eastgate Street, died between the Jaeger Store and the Brooks Shopping Centre.

New safety barriers have also been erected either side of the junction to ensure people only cross where it is safe.

Campaigners from the city's residents' association say that had the improvements been in place this time last year, Gladys's death could well have been avoided.