Road safety crackdown

YORKSHIRE DALES roads with higher than average accident rates will be at the centre of a police enforcement campaign this week aimed at cutting a "totally unacceptable" toll of death and injury across the county.

Intensive police action will target dangerous, careless and irresponsible road users, and officers warn that they will take firm, decisive action against offenders. Visitors to the county should be aware that the tough policy applies right across the county's 6,000 miles of roads.

Expert analysis has highlighted 32 stretches of road with poor accident records, many of which are routes with the dales. Deputy Chief Constable Adam Briggs warns: "It is not roads that cause accidents - it is drivers and riders. We will be concentrating resources on those 32 identified routes and we will act positively against anyone we see endangering other road users."

Mr Briggs is leading Operation Helical, at least eight weeks of co-ordinated action involving the emergency services and other organisations.

He said: "50 people have died on North Yorkshire's roads this year and that is totally unacceptable. The vast majority of those deaths are due to someone's error or irresponsibility and I am making it very clear right now that North Yorkshire Police will not tolerate this.

It is madness that so many people's lives are affected by the actions of so few people. Up to 100 people can be affected by every fatal collision, beginning with family, and spreading out through friends, colleagues and acquaintances. This cannot continue."

North Yorkshire Police officers will be operating extra patrols in marked and plain cars and motorcycles and will check the county's roads, concentrating particularly on the 32 high-risk routes.

Extreme speeders will be fast tracked to court within days of their being caught and drivers and riders who break any speed limit by 30mph can lose their licences in just a week.

Officers will be deploying Autovision - a system that gives irrefutable evidence of speeding individuals and which can be deployed on any road at any time. Autovision records the speed and registration number of passing vehicles - together with a picture of the driver's face.

Automatic Number Plate Recognition system will also be used to read and check the numbers of passing vehicles. Computers instantly check whether each vehicle is taxed or insured and its owner has a driving licence.

This force is not anti-motorist or anti-biker in any way, but North Yorkshire officers will use all means available to them to cut this carnage

Deputy Chief Constable Adam Briggs - North Yorkshire Police

Mr Briggs added: "We welcome safe, responsible riders and drivers in our county. We are pleased to police those of our own residents who can travel with consideration to other road-users. This force is not anti-motorist or anti-biker in any way, but North Yorkshire officers will use all means available to them to cut this carnage on our roads and we are determined to put this county's roads among the safest in the country.

"I want visitors to North Yorkshire to be clear on their position too. They know they are welcome to enjoy our marvellous rural roads and scenery, and welcome to stop in our towns and villages.

"But they now know that if they come here and take risks on North Yorkshire's roads, then every one of my officers will use their full powers to make their visit deeply unpleasant. That's a promise."

Among the roads targeted are:

• A65 Skipton to Gargrave Road. Skipton Bypass A59 junction to Gargrave
• A59 Beamsley Bank
• A65 Austwick to Settle
• B6479 junction of the B6255 to Austwick Road
• A61 North Harrogate to Ripon
• A59 Travellers rest to Fewston
• A6055 Knaresborough to Boroughbridge
• A658 Harrogate Bypass - A661 to A61
• A66 Scotch Corner to Newsham
• A684 Patrick Brompton to Leyburn
• A6108 Leyburn to Middleham
• A684 Hawes to Aysgarth