JUST weeks after a lorry driver was jailed for killing a family of four less than 20 miles away, drivers on one of Swindon’s most notorious roads have continued to flout the law.

Over the course of the last few days, The Adver has spotted numerous drivers with mobile phones in hand along a 40mph stretch of Thamesdown Drive.

It comes just a few months after lorry driver Tomasz Kroker was jailed for 10 years for killing four people after losing control of his vehicle while on his phone.

He ploughed into stationary traffic on the A34 in Berkshire, killing Tracy Houghton, 45, her sons Ethan, 13, and 11-year-old Josh, and step-daughter Aimee Goldsmith, 11.

Wiltshire and Swindon’s police and crime commissioner Angus Macpherson said: “The nation was appalled by the deaths of a mother and her young children caused by a lorry driver taking his eyes off the road to select some music on his phone.

“That terrible tragedy should drive home a simple message to motorists: don’t risk it. It just takes a split second of distraction to put the lives of other road users at risk – and quite possibly yours too.

“When we are tempted to check an incoming tweet, email or text message we should remember the shocked look on the face of that HGV driver as he looked up and realised too late that the traffic ahead had stopped and he was about to plough into it.

“Increasingly we are seeing more and more people use their mobile phones while driving. The problem is that the functionality of the phone has changed and people are not just using them as phones – answering text messages or sending tweets is very dangerous from behind the wheel.

“We tend to think that answering our phones is more important than keeping our concentration on the road. Unfortunately, we have to go down the enforcement route because trying to educate people of the dangers doesn’t seem to be working.

“It is a very important message as we go into the dark nights and wet winter roads.”

Thamesdown Drive is a well-known crash blackspot and moves have been made to persuade the council to install speed cameras.

Just a couple of months ago a motorcyclist, who only passed his test a fortnight earlier, was injured in a collision after being clocked at more than double the speed limit.

Last winter one woman had to be cut free from her car by emergency crews and, in a separate incident, a man was rushed to hospital after a Volkswagen Passat collided with a Honda Jazz.

Mr Macpherson has called for a “change in culture” as a means to stamp out the behaviour which is putting the lives of other road users at risk.

He said: “Stronger penalties are needed to deter people behind the wheel from being distracted. But I think we need a change in culture so that we regard a driver who takes their eyes off the road to fiddle with a mobile with the same contempt that we nowadays reserve for drunken drivers who get behind the wheel.”