POLICE yesterday confirmed the identities of three people who died in accidents on the region's roads over the weekend.

Martin McLoughlin, of Cyclamen Grove, Darlington, was thze 24th biker killed on North Yorkshire's roads this year, compared to 23 in total last year.

The 32-year-old was leading a group of five bikers along the B6270 between Reeth and Richmond when his bike left the road, a mile from the junction with the A6108, at about 3pm on Saturday.

With almost 50 deaths in the past 21 months, the alarming number of motorcyclists killed or injured in the county was due to be discussed at a North Yorkshire County Council meeting last night.

"If 25 people died in a single incident it would be described as a disaster,'' said North Yorkshire police spokesman Ron Johnson.

Meanwhile police confirmed that the Reverend Jill Newham died after her Volkswagen Golf was involved in a collision with a Rover Metro half-a-mile south of the Aldborough crossroads on the B6265, between Boroughbridge and Green Hammerton, North Yorkshire, at 3pm on Sunday.

The 66-year-old widow was a curate at the church in Green Hammerton and in Whixley where she lived. The Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, the Right Reverend John Packer said: "She had a particular quality of pastoral care and listening which was greatly valued and she will be sadly missed."

Four people in the Metro were also injured. Three were later allowed home but a 20-year-old woman was still being treated for multiple injuries at Harrogate District Hospital yesterday.

Police last night named a motorcyclist who died when his Suzuki bike crashed on a B-road near Selset Reservoir, near Middleton in Teesdale, on Sunday afternoon, as Arthur Lofthouse, 67, of Clayton-le-Moor, near Accrington, Lancashire.