THE family of a Hampshire man who died in a road smash hours before he was due to be married today backed a campaign to encourage motorists to slow down this Christmas.

Gordon and Anne Thick urged drivers to have a little compassion and stick to speed limits over the busy festive season.

Their son John died aged 24 in a crash in Oakmount Road, Chandler's Ford, when he was returning home from a quiet drink in Winchester on the eve of his wedding day. His family and fiancee Katie Blackwood were told the tragic news hours before they were due to gather at St Boniface Church, in Chandler's Ford, to celebrate the marriage.

Speed and alcohol both played a part in the horrific car crash and driver Russell Ndlovu, from Eastleigh, was jailed for five years.

Today Anne told how Christmas was one of the hardest times for the close-knit family - but was also the season when road dangers rise.

The 59-year-old spoke out as the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Safety Camera Partnership, which has responsibility for the county's 19 fixed point speed cameras and 15 mobile routes, launched a poster campaign to encourage drivers to kill their speed.

"Any of the major times when the family is likely to get together makes you very painfully aware that someone who should be there is not there - though they are with you spiritually," she said.

"Christmas isn't a time we terribly look forward to. We do it, but it has a tinge of sadness.

"But Christmas is also a time when people relax. You get the combination of people drinking and driving, and maybe becoming careless about keeping speed limits. All the factors together becomes a very dangerous thing."

She hit out at law-breakers who step on the accelerator and urged drivers to curb the speeding temptation, adding: "Once people are behind a wheel they become different characters, it brings out all sorts of traits. Aggression is one thing but the right to interpret the law is another. Some speed limits may not appear to be sensible but the way to get around that isn't by breaking them. Nobody has the right to interpret the law to suit themselves."

Husband Gordon, also 59, added: "There's a need to bring this culture of speeding down. The more people who keep to speed limits, the easier it will be."

The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Safety Camera Partnership's posters aim to encourage drivers to slow down over the festive period when roads are particularly busy with traffic.

Road users are urged not to give their money in speeding fines this Christmas but to save lives by slowing down.

Julian Hewitt, partnership spokesman, said: "Christmas is a time when all should be thinking about our families and others and we all have a responsibility to protect ourselves and other road users. Safety cameras have been shown to save lives, reduce casualties and reduce the devastating effects a serious accident can have on families.

"The partnership appeals to road users not to give us their money - which they can ensure by driving at an appropriate speed well within the limit."

Launch of the Christmas anti-speeding crackdown also comes just days after the parents of a Hampshire student killed by a speeding motorcyclist called for more protection for pedestrians and "a speed camera on very corner" if necessary.

Martin and Janet Moore had hoped the biker who struck 17-year-old Alex as he crossed The Avenue, Southampton, in January, would have received a driving ban.

Instead Ian Rummey was fined £500, with £100 costs and nine penalty points, after being convicted of driving without due care and attention.