A road peace vigil in Winchester on Saturday put Hampshire's soaring accident rate firmly on the agenda.

Crash victims and their families gathered outside the city's Guildhall to raise awareness to the tragic consequences of road deaths and injuries and spotlighting the fact that there has been a sharp rise in the number of casualties on the South's roads.

In the six-month period from April, 2001 to September, 2001, there were 30 deaths and 531 serious injuries on the roads of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, compared with 50 deaths and 603 injuries in the same period this year.

Said Pip Finucane, of vigil organisers, RoadPeace: "We wanted to draw attention to the problem and to the help needed after these tragedies.

"People tend to think that road deaths are just something that happens. They are not accidents. They are usually caused by somebody doing something," she added.

Mrs Finucane has personal experience: her husband was killed crossing the road near their old home in Surrey.