Funding approved for road safety works around US base near Banbury after death of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn

Harry Dunn, 19, who lived in Charlton near Banbury, was riding his motorcycle near the RAF Croughton base in Northamptonshire when he was killed in 2019 in a head-on crash by a car driving on the wrong side of the road.

A total of £1.26m worth of government funding for road safety improvements at the RAF base in Barford – about nine miles from RAF Croughton – was approved by Oxfordshire County Council highways chief Andrew Gant at a meeting on Thursday last week.

This takes the total amount of funding accepted by the council for improvements up to £3.9m after £2.7m was accepted in March last year.

Mr Gant said: “This has arisen from the tragic incident in 2019.

“It’s not one scheme. It’s lots of relatively small interventions around RAF Barford St John.

“I am very happy to agree the recommendations and to approve the full scope and to permit officers to go ahead and implement them.”

New infrastructure will include road traffic markings, traffic signs and traffic calming measures in addition to enhanced maintenance such as carriageway surfacing.

This comes as the 2019 fatal incident raised questions around safety at US bases in the UK.

US citizen Anne Sacoolas, who was working for the US intelligence community, was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for 12 months after pleading guilty to criminal charges in connection with the death of Harry Dunn.

She had pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving in October.