TWO clergymen are pioneering a campaign to help curb deaths on North Yorkshire's roads.

The move by the Vicar of Norton, the Reverend Bill Ankers, and Father Tim Bywater, of St Leonard and St Mary's Catholic Church, Malton, follows a number of funerals of young people killed in crashes. They met Inspector Neil Burnett, who welcomed the initiative as part of the high profile campaign by North Yorkshire Police to cut the number of accidents, especially among motorcyclists on the county's roads.

Between them the clergymen have conducted the funerals of seven crash victims in the past two years.

Insp Burnett said: "Road safety and speeding traffic is high on everyone's agenda and we are anxious to support any project which could help to influence the standards of driving.

"The clergy have been devastated by the number of funerals they have had to conduct. We all want to get the message across about road safety and the impact a fatal accident has on so many people."

Mr Ankers said the clergy's scheme was in its early stages. "We are hoping to involve families of those who have lost relatives, their friends, the firemen who have to cut victims from the wreckage of vehicles and the ambulancemen who fight to save them."

But he wants to see the police involved because they have the job of breaking the tragic news, as well as funeral directors who also have a major role in such tragedies.

Mr Ankers said their planned initiative was not a "wrist-slapping" of young motorists.

"We want to get the message over to young drivers, through those who are directly involved, that when there is a fatal accident just what an effect it has on so many people."