SPEEDING motorists in North Yorkshire are facing a clampdown thanks to the police's latest equipment.

The new detection equipment includes video cameras fixed to laser speed guns, which identify the driver as well as the number plate of a speeding vehicle.

The police will also use unmarked cars, motorcycles and vans fitted with cameras to catch speeders.

The moves are part of a hardline policy being introduced by the county's police force to curb serious accidents and officers claim it is already working.

Latest figures show that, in the last 12 months, 65 people died in road accidents, compared with 88 in the previous year.

The number of motorcycling fatalities so far this year is 13 - which is half the total for last year.

But the overall number of serious injury accidents remains the same.

Another move by the police is to fast-track cases where drivers who are caught in excess of 30mph over the speed limit - which will mean swifter court appearances for those drivers.

The new video camera speed guns, known as auto-vision cameras, were first used two weeks ago, when thousands of motorcyclists travelled on roads through the county to go to the International Motor Cycle Gold Cup meeting at Scarborough's Oliver's Mount.

Their use, coupled with a high-profile police presence, resulted in no serious accidents during the event.