A BIKER was tonight fighting for his life after a day of carnage on the roads of North Yorkshire.

The man hit a road sign on the A611 at Spofforth, near Harrogate, shortly after 10am on Sunday.

He was initially taken to Harrogate Hospital, but was later transferred to Leeds General Infirmary, where his condition last night was described as critical.

Police in North Yorkshire dealt with five separate accidents involving bikers on Sunday. In the worst, a man died when his Honda CBR 1,000 machine was in collision with a Mitsubishi Carisma car outside the Sidings Hotel, on a minor road just off the A19 at Shipton by Beningbrough, at 11.56am.

He has not yet been named by police, but is believed to be in his 40s. His family was being contacted.

Other accidents took place at Bilsdale Road, Easterside, Helmsley at 11.24am, on the A65 at Hellifield, west of Skipton at 11.50am and on the B61 between Leathley and Beckwithshaw, south of Harrogate at 4.02pm.

Today all three bikers hurt in those collisions were said to be in hospital with serious, but not life threatening injuries.

The day of accidents came in the midst of a hard-line road safety campaign being run by North Yorkshire Police in a bid to cut the number of motorists killed and seriously hurt on the county's roads.

The operation was launched at the end of July when the number of road deaths in the county so far this year reached 50, compared to 61 in the whole of 2006.

Inspector Michael Thompson of York Police said: "I would urge motorcyclists to take extreme care when travelling on North Yorkshire's roads.

"The accidents are not necessarily their fault - I would also ask other motorists to be aware of motorcycles."