TRIBUTES are being paid to a "devoted" Monmouthshire couple who died in a crash between a car and lorry at a notorious accident blackspot.

Roger and Deidre Collett, of Wern Gifford, Pandy, and the lorry driver, died on the A465 Pontrilas to Pandy road, near Llangua, on Monday.

Mr Collett, 56, and his wife, 55, were just minutes from their home when the tragedy happened.

Police say the Collet's silver Volvo went out of control and collided head-on with the 7.5 tonne lorry. The impact caused the lorry to shed its load, a generator, onto the car.

The lorry driver - Kevin Greco, of Queensway, Ledbury - was thrown from his vehicle's cabin.

All three were pronounced dead at the scene. Neighbour Tony Savagar had been friends with Mr and Mrs Collett for more than 30 years.

He said: "They were a very thoughtful couple, they were very nice and good neighbours.

"We looked out for one another. If you had any problems you would go to them and vice versa."

Mr Savagar said the accident had affected the whole community and "brought things home" to them.

He said: "It's the children we feel for. They were a very close family. "It's very distressing. It's difficult to understand the reason why, when they're so young," he said.

"It could've been any one of us at that place at that particular time. Makes you wonder what life is all about."

Mr Savagar said the A465 was a busy trunk road and there had previously been speeding problems. A neighbour of the dead couple, who did not want to be named, said: "They were a lovely couple. They were devoted to each other."

Bob Thomas runs a roadside burger van on the A465. He was packing up around the time of the accident.

He said: "I saw all the emergency vehicles go past. There were police, ambulance and fire - there was quite a few of them. More and more kept going past.

"You get a lot of knocks and bumps on this road." James Stark, 49, who lives in Llangua, said it was a very dangerous road. "The road sweeps round quite sharply after the bridge," he said.

"We don't know how this accident happened - it was dry weather. "The trouble is we are on the border and there have been plans to make road changes since 1994 or 1995 but nothing has happened yet." West Mercia Police are investigating the crash.