RELIGIOUS leaders united with the emergency services yesterday for a service drawing attention to the high number of road accidents in the region.

At an emotional service in Ripon Cathedral, candles were lit and prayers were said for the 78 people who had been killed on North Yorkshire's roads in the past year.

Relatives and friends of victims took photographs and mementoes, which were placed on the altar steps before the Oak Leaf service.

The title was taken from the paper oak leaves on which the names of the victims were written before the service.

Superintendent David Short, divisional commander of North Yorkshire Police's eastern division, said: "Motorcyclists are a particularly vulnerable group of road users," he said. "This year, 15 have been killed on our roads, and police officers know only too well the misery caused to families by the death of a loved one in a road crash."

The speaker at the service, which was attended by sidecar champion Steve Webster, of Easingwold, was the Reverend David Hoskins, chaplain at Harrogate District Hospital