People have spoken of their sadness at the death of a 47-year-old man who died after the 4x4 he was driving was in collision with two other vehicles near Otley.

The man, from the Burley-in-Wharfedale area, had been travelling along the A660 Otley Road towards Ilkley when the collision occurred late on Friday afternoon.

Councillors have vowed to learn any lessons from the outcome of the investigation into how the accident occurred.

Police said the man was travelling in a Toyota Hilux, near the Burley-in-Wharfedale roundabout, when his vehicle was in collision with two other vehicles - one travelling in the same direction as his and the other heading towards Otley.

Councillor Matt Palmer (Con, Wharfedale) said the thoughts of the whole community should be with the man’s friends and family.

He said: “Obviously we have to wait for the outcome of the investigation, to find out what happened, but it’s always a tragedy when these sorts of road accidents occur and all of our thoughts, from the ward councillors and everybody in the local community, will be with his friends and family at this moment.

“The commitment we have to make as ward councillors is to say, once we know what the cause of this is, if there are things to learn, in terms of the highways, then we will make absolutely sure we learn them and a clear case will be made to the council for improvements so that we avoid similar accidents occurring.

“We know this area is an accident blackspot - we know this relates to the configuration of this road, so regardless of the outcome of this investigation there are things we are already looking at, but if there are things to learn from this we will make sure we do learn them.

“But for now the key thing is the thoughts of the whole community will be with his family and friends and obviously we are sorry to hear this has happened.”

Councillor Chris Greaves (Independent, Wharfedale) called for cross-border co-operation with Leeds City Council to improve the roads in the area.

He said: “My sympathies obviously go to the family and without knowing the circumstances, it does stress again that the whole area needs to be reviewed for safety.”

Councillor Dale Smith (Con, Wharfedale) said any loss of life was a tragedy.

He said: “Obviously there will be a lot of people deeply upset - our hearts go out to his family and all his friends.”

Officers want to speak to anyone who saw the crash, or who saw the 4x4 immediately before it happened, at 4.35pm on Friday.

Joanne Hanson, owner of Wharfedale Flowers, in Burley-in-Wharfedale, said roads in the area were closed until well into the evening.

She said: “My partner came home at 9pm and it was still closed.

“Any accident is awful isn’t it, and particularly as someone has died - it’s really sad.”

Witnesses or anyone with information has been asked to contact PC Richard Whiteley on the non-emergency number, 101.