North Yorks gets safer?

North Yorkshire council and police are claiming success for their combined campaign to cut the numbers of motorcyclists killed or seriously injured in the county.

The figures released show fatalities droped from 28 in 2003, to 16 so far this year, with the number of crashes resulting in a death or serious injury down from 195 to 126.

The drop has been attributed to high profile police patrols and enforcement as well as fast tracking serious speed offenders to court and sentence. However, when we spoke to the North Yorks police in September, a spokesman admitted the majority of extreme speeding cases related to car drivers. Figures revealed to us in August, before a clampdown at the Croft British Superbike round, revealed that only 32 of the 245 extreme speeders being prosecuted were actually motorcyclists.

Another contribution to the falling figures could be the relatively poor summer this year, which is denied by the Road Safety Team.

“Although the weather this year has restricted to an extent the opportunity for riders to take to the roads, the riders have also been made very aware of the consequences they face if they drive irresponsibly in the county,” said David Lindsay from the Road Safety Team.

But the team aren’t stopping there. Assistant Chief Constable David Collins has pledged to continue the work.

“Our work on reducing these numbers will continue next year. Although the main focus was to reduce casualties, the campaign was also working on combating anti-social use of bikes, in relation to noise and other issues. This included the use of defective, and therefore potentially dangerous bikes.”