A COUNCIL has committed itself to investigate the feasibility of a series of measures to improve safety on a road where five members of the same North-East family were killed.

Cabinet members at North East Lincolnshire Council met yesterday to consider an independent safety review of the A18.

A report was commissioned after an inquest into the deaths of members of three generations of the Cockburn family of Ouston, near Chester-le-Street, in a head-on crash between their car and a lorry, near Grimsby, in April 2013.

Angela Cockburn, 49, and David Cockburn, 48, died, along with their daughter Bethany, 18, and one-year-old granddaughter Lacie Jade Stephenson and the couple’s older daughter, Carley Ann, 21.

They were heading to a dance competition in Skegness on April 2013.

The report looked at the feasibility of making the stretch of the safer and also how it could be brought up to the standard of a modern A road.

Works recommended include widening and realigning parts of the road, improvements to drainage and the road surface, a new road restraint barrier in one area, some changes to road markings and traffic signs.

An early estimate suggests these works would cost between £13-million and £18.7-million to complete.

Cllr David Watson, portfolio holder for energy and environment at the council, said: “In reaching today’s decision, I hope we can assure the relatives and friends of the five members of the Cockburn family who lost their lives on the A18, in whatever way possible, that we are doing all we can to reduce the chances of such a tragedy happening again on this stretch of road.

“Our sympathy remains with them.

“The safety of all road users in North-East Lincolnshire is of paramount importance and we’re taking steps to reduce the number of casualties on our roads.”