Road deaths reduced in campaign

The number of fatal crashes has fallen by 15%

Collisions on roads in North Yorkshire have fallen as part of a police campaign, figures show.

Operation Anvil was set up in March to reduce the number of deaths and injuries on the county's roads.

North Yorkshire Police said three months into the campaign, there had been a 41% reduction in collisions.

Insp Dave Brown said the number of crashes resulting in deaths had fallen by 15% and those leading to serious injury had reduced by 36%.

He said: "While the results may just appear to be a number, in reality there are 71 fewer families who have not suffered the devastation of the death or serious injury of a loved one on the county's roads."

Police said so far into the campaign, more than 11,000 vehicles had been stopped. Out of that number there had been 2,656 speeding offences, 414 mobile phone offences and 105 offences for drink-driving.

Insp Brown added: "What does concern me is the number of motorists who continue to abuse the most basic rules of the road and are prepared to put themselves and others at risk."

Traffic police on motorcycles are using a helmet-mounted camera in a bid to cut fatalities on North Yorkshire's roads.

The tiny cameras give a motorcyclists' view of the road and the footage will be examined by highways engineers to see how road safety could be improved.

The camera is part of Operation Anvil - a police campaign to reduce deaths and injuries on the county's roads.

In 2008, 81 people were killed on roads in North Yorkshire. Seventeen of those were motorcyclists, police said.

Increased road safety checks will be carried out during the spring and summer months as part of the operation.

This will be backed up with campaigns to reach all road users from motorcyclists to holidaymakers and parents taking their children to and from school.

Chief Constable Grahame Maxwell said: "Last year three people were murdered in the county. That is three too many, but is a tiny figure compared with the 81 who died on the roads.

"We know that the three principal causes of death on the roads remain inappropriate or excessive speed, drink driving and the failure to wear seatbelts.

"But we will be vigilant to other dangers such as drivers under the influence of drugs, suffering fatigue or using mobile phones at the wheel."