New speed cameras have been installed on a road where multiple people have suffered serious or fatal injuries in crashes.

Two devices have been placed in a 40mph zone on the A26 Hadlow Road, near Tonbridge, after it was identified as a site where drivers needed to slow down.

Between 2016 and 2019 the route saw two deaths, eight people seriously injured and six people involved in collisions resulting in minor injuries.

On July 21, 2019, Sukh Mati Limbu, who was 82, died from multiple injuries after a crash.

She had been a passenger in her son Padam Limbu’s car when it drifted into the wrong lane and collided with an oncoming Vauxhall Astra.

Limbu went on trial last year accused of causing death by careless driving but was found not guilty by a jury.

Just a year earlier, Tom Smith, 25, was killed after crashing his car into a tree on the A26, near Hadlow.

'The speed limit is not a target...'

He was driving a blue Vauxhall Vectra along Tonbridge Road on Thursday, October 25, 2018 when it left the road at around 7.55pm. He died at the scene.

Since 2019 an investigation has taken place and a phased plan, developed by road safety engineers, led to new lines and signs being installed last year to urge caution among drivers.

The second phase of the plan means safety cameras have now been put in place.

The work has been completed through a joint effort between Kent County Council and the Kent and Medway Safety Camera Partnership to help educate and inform drivers.

Kent County Council’s cabinet member for highways and transport, Cllr David Brazier, said: “The safety of our road users is a top priority and it is important we help to educate and enforce, if we hope to realise our aim of having zero deaths on our roads by 2050 as set out in our Vision Zero plan.

"We have reviewed the possible interventions available at this site extensively and believe this to be the most effective way to reduce the risk of further deaths and injuries on this stretch of road.

“I commend the majority of drivers who do use our roads responsibly and I would like to remind people that a speed limit is not a target.”