ACCIDENT statistics on a road where four friends died are not high enough to warrant traffic calming measures, say police.

The men, who were travelling back to Newport after playing pool in Caerleon, died when their car careered off the road and plunged into the River Usk.

Just one passenger - Kristian Reardon, 27 - survived. His brother, Matthew, 23, died, along with Martin Biggs, 34, Anthony Hill, 35, and driver Leighton Pring, 22.

Now police have revealed how in the last five years, including this year up to October 31, there were 11 collisions causing injury on the stretch of road from the Caerleon Road junction with Beaufort Road up to Caerleon Bridge.

Only one of the accidents was classed as serious, with ten causing slight injuries. The serious accident happened on August 31, 1998, and involved three cars. One person suffered concussion, while another had a broken ankle.

The statistics are: In 1997, there were two slight injury collisions. In 1998, there was one serious accident and two slight accidents. In 1999, there were four slight injury collisions. Last year, there was one slight injury collision. Up to October 31 this year, there had been one slight injury collision.

Chief Inspector Peter Fouweather, (pictured) of Gwent Police, said: "The data would not necessarily support the introduction of any traffic calming measures because we are talking about a five-year period and there are 11,094 vehicle movements along that stretch of road every day. The figures would not indicate a significant problem."

But Chief Inspector Fouweather said as a result of collision data gathered last year and this year, Gwent Police's mobile speed cameras were used on the road on several occasions.

He said the inquiry into Sunday's fatal accident was continuing. Now police are appealing for witnesses to the accident to come forward.

Yesterday the Argus reported how Kristian Reardon had told police the Volkswagen Polo overtook another vehicle between Caerleon Bridge and the accident scene. Detectives want to speak to the driver of the car which was overtaken.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact PC Steve Richardson 01633 838111.