Police name three road victims

The group are thought to have been in the pub before the crash

Officers have released the names of three people who died on the same stretch of road within 24 hours.

David Hulse, 37, from Burrington Drive in Stoke-on-Trent, lost control of his motorbike on the A520 Leek Road in Wetley Rocks at around 2230 BST Thursday.

Edward Green, aged 17, from Ashbank and James Lockett, also 17 and from Werrington died in a car crash on the same stretch of road late on Wednesday evening.

Another teenager was arrested following the car accident.

Police said the 17-year-old youth was driving a red Ford Fiesta which left the road and hit a stone wall, a bus shelter and a telegraph pole before overturning.

Three other people injured in the crash were treated at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire.

The accident left the road closed for five hours.

A police spokesman said that the group, all aged in their late teens or early 20s, were thought to have visited a pub before the crash.

He added: "It is believed these five young persons had been with other friends to a pub in the Cheddleton area earlier."

Police are trying to trace the driver of a small hatchback car they believe may have been travelling with the Fiesta at the time of the accident.