MEASURES designed to improve road safety in Richmondshire have been credited with helping to reduce the number of people being injured in accidents..

A new report states that, although the number of fatalities in the district has remained constant over the past three years, the total number of casualties has fallen from 339 in 2001 to 292 last year.

Catterick county councillor Carl Les said: "It does appear that the accident rates are going in the right direction.

"The county council spends a small fortune every year on traffic-calming, putting up speed signs, smoothing out bad bends and introducing measures such as the speed cushions in Skeeby. These seem to be working.

"However, what is still a major concern for the Richmondshire area is accidents that are happening on roads that we aren't responsible for, such as the A1 and the A66."

The accident figures were published in a North Yorkshire Council report for today's meeting of the authority's Richmondshire area committee.

In the past three years, seven people have died every year on Richmondshire's roads.

Last year, four motorbike riders were killed and a further 35 received serious, or minor, injuries.

In 2003, three car occupants were killed and 208 were injured.

The report showed that most casualties resulted from accidents on minor c-class roads outside towns and villages, with the lowest numbers resulting from collisions on motorways.

Coun Les said accidents could be reduced still further if road users slowed down.

He said: "We have to get drivers to agree not to speed through other people's villages."

North Yorkshire County Council has pledged to cut the number of people killed or seriously injured on the county's roads by 40 per cent by 2010.

The authority also aims to increase the percentage of children wearing front and rear seat belts to 95 per cent and 90 per cent respectively, by the same time.

Council officers say they are on course to meet the targets.

The Richmondshire area committee will hold today's meeting at the Middleham Key.