THE latest fatal accident along the A404 road at Beamond End sent a chill down the spine of a Holmer Green resident whose son died at the same spot 18 years ago.

Pam Schopp, 56, of Skimmers Close, said she was devastated to hear of the death of 16-year-old Vicky Bishop.

The latest tragedy brought back memories of the night of July 13 1984 when Mrs Schopp's son, Ian Saunders, 20, and his fiance, Nematala Dancer, 17, lost their lives when the car driven by a friend was in a crash with another vehicle.

Well-wishers packed the Chiltern Crematorium at the funeral of the betrothed couple who were former pupils at Holmer Green Upper School which is now mourning Vicky's death.

Mrs Schopp said: "I am just about learning to live with my son's death but every time I hear of another accident along the road it just guts me, I get so choked up.

"I feel so much for their families. When it first happened I used to look at the back gate and think that Ian and his fiance would walk in.

"I threw all the sympathy cards in the bin because I didn't believe it could be true.

"It was awful and the pain never goes away but you learn to live with it.

"When I see it happen again and again it just destroys me."

Mrs Schopp's daughter Jayne Hirtle, 32, was just 15 when the accident happened.

She remembers going over to the Dancer family home in Skimmers Close with her brother Darren, who was 17, and her sister Lisa, who was 12, while her mother went to the scene of the crash.

Mrs Hirtle who now has an ten-month-old son of her own called Ellis, added: "It is only now that I can really appreciate what my mother must have gone through and I don't know how she coped.

"I will never forget it and I will never get over it.

"We couldn't believe it when we heard of this latest accident.

"It's awful to think some poor family is going through the same thing and our hearts go out to them because we are know what they are going through.

"While it is fresh in their minds they will be absorbed in their grief and trying to come to terms with it.

"It is only later that the loss begins to sink in."

Eighteen years after the tragedy which blighted the lives of two families in Holmer Green, cars still thunder past the spot where memorials to six youngsters now line the side of the road.

Now the bereaved mothers, Mrs Schopp and Dixi Obidiah, have pledged to join a campaign by the Bucks Free Press to petition Buckinghamshire County Council for a lower speed limit along the ill-fated stretch of road between Amersham and High Wycombe.