DETAILS of a road safety campaign to cut the casualty rate on one of the region's most dangerous roads have been unveiled.

Motorists using the A171 moor road between Teesside and Whitby will see four signs along the route warning them that there have been 111 casualties on the stretch of road, between Little Waterfall Farm, just outside Guisborough, and Scaling Dam, on the North Yorkshire boundary.

At the end of last month, two people were killed when their vehicles were involved in a collision at Lockwood Beck.

The signs have been put up by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, which has launched a joint initiative with Cleveland Police to introduce a phased programme of improvements.

As reported in The Northern Echo last week, these include reducing the speed limit between Little Waterfall Farm and the top of Birk Brow, from 60mph to 50mph, introducing a segregated right turn lane at Slapewath, improving signing and road markings at Birk Brow, and reducing the lanes from two to one on the downhill section of Birk Brow.

Councillor Sylvia Szintai, lead member for the environment and infrastructure with Redcar and Cleveland council, said: "We hold a proud record of having the lowest accident rate per kilometre of road in the country, despite the problems on the Moor Road. There are far too many crashes happening on this stretch.

"We have drawn up a strategy which we believe contains enough elements to make a real improvement. We want the signs to be a real warning to motorists to take extra care and avoid becoming an addition to the list of casualties."

Cleveland Police has carried out surveillance weekends, in March and April, dealing with 72 drivers for a range of offences. More operations are planned.

Inspector Tom Brown said: "Drivers who think the open road access across the moor is an invitation to put their foot down can think again."