BORN-AGAIN bikers have hit the North-East's attempts to cut the number of people killed or seriously injured on the region's roads, figures reveal.
Transport chiefs are celebrating a 25 per cent fall in deaths and serious injuries over the ten years since 1993, from 1,690 to 1,261.
But the reduction would have been greater without a 63 per cent rise among bikers, from 136 in 1993 to 222 in 2003, according to a Department for Transport report.
The increase was the largest in Britain, far in excess of the second biggest rise of 37 per cent in Yorkshire and the Humber.
Excluding the Tyne and Wear metropolitan area, the increase in deaths and serious injuries was even more dramatic - a rise of 87 per cent from 82 to 153.
The number of motorbike casualties in the North East also rose over the ten-year period, from 453 to 705 - a rise of 56 per cent.
The death toll has been blamed on so-called born-again bikers - middle-aged enthusiasts riding more powerful machines in a bid to recapture the excitement of their youth.
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