HORSE riders have begun a campaign to cut speed on a road near Eastleigh where a horse was recently fatally injured in a n accident involving a bus and a car.

Megan, a New Forest pony, had to be destroyed after she was hit near the Fox and Hounds pub on Winchester Road in Fair Oak as two 14-year-old girls walked her home to a warm stable on a foggy night.

The 41-year-old female car driver from Eastleigh was admitted to intensive care at Winchester's Royal Hampshire County Hospital and the 26-year-old bus driver escaped with a bruised knee. One of the teenage girls suffered cuts and bruises.

Locals have long warned that the winding and narrow road is not safe as vehicles often don't slow to 40mph after leaving a 60mph stretch between Fishers Pond and Hill View Caravan Park.

Megan's death has spurred them into action and now they want the whole road to be given a 30mph limit with speed cameras and extra police checks to enforce it.

Carol Topham tended to the dying pony - which had a broken pelvis and was in severe shock - before it was humanely put down.

She said: "It was an absolutely horrendous sight. Its pulse rate was extremely high because it was in complete and utter shock.

"One resident said that if we get the speed down to 50mph it would be a big improvement. The road is really narrow in parts and it's too narrow for vehicles the size of lorries especially when they come down here at those kind of speeds."

Eastleigh borough councillor for Fair Oak Philip Spearey has vowed to take up the matter with Hampshire County Council, which is responsible for the road.

He said: "It's a bad road and cars go very fast on it. In the winter when water runs off the fields there's ice on it. The bridleway opposite the Fox and Hounds needs better signs to say there could be horses ahead."