‘‘Not that road again,’’ she says.

Mrs Nicol is a survivor of the Kings Highway.

In 2007, she lost her husband to a collision on the treacherous road which since Friday has claimed five lives in two separate accidents.

Canberra lawyer Ian Nicol, 54, died on the highway on Boxing Day 2007 as he and his wife were returning home from the South Coast.

The couple had just spent Christmas with family when their station wagon collided with another vehicle between Bungendore and Braidwood.

Mrs Nicol sustained injuries to her ribs and face and attended her husband’s memorial service 10 days later with her arm still in a sling.

The deadly dangers of the Kings Highway still haunt her.

‘‘It is one of those dreaded roads,’’ Mrs Nicol said yesterday.

She still travels on the highway, albeit reluctantly, and says the roadway had to be widened to make it safer.

She urged drivers not to use cruise control.

‘‘In my husband’s case the woman [driving the other car] fell asleep at the wheel,’’ Mrs Nicol said. ‘‘She was on cruise control.’’

Cruise control could not manage the highway’s frequently changing nature.

‘‘I wish the police would put signs saying it is not advisable to use cruise control on this road,’’ she said.

Mrs Nicol said the driver of the other car involved in the accident that killed her husband had not even woken when she crashed into the vehicle ahead of the Nicols.

German tourists had narrowly avoided the east-bound vehicle which was on the wrong side of the road. It had then crashed into a second car, forcing it into a tree, before colliding with the Nicols’ car.

‘‘Ian turned off as far as he could to the left when she went into his door and sent us off into the gully,’’ Mrs Nicol said.

Had the woman’s car not been on cruise control she might have woken with the first crash.