NEW figures suggest that North Yorkshire's roads are becoming safer to drive on.

Members of the county council's Richmondshire area committee meets in Northallerton today and will be told accidents resulting in injuries were down 3.2 per cent in 2000, compared with the year before.

The number of casualties has also fallen 4.3 per cent - down from 4,002 in 1999 to 3,831 last year.

But if fatalities are taken in isolation, then there has been a big increase - with 78 recorded last year, in comparison with 59 in 1999.

Even though traffic has increased 50 per cent since the 1980s, safety features on the average family saloon have also improved.

Airbags and side-impact bars are now standard in most and, although they are not represented in the figures, each will have had a part to play.

At first glance, motorways seem the safest place to drive, recording only a fraction of the number of accidents that have occurred on A roads in the county.

But, while motorways may appear safer, fewer accidents are recorded on them, because there are very few stretches of the top-grade of road in the county.

This morning's meeting will also be informed of new road safety targets set by the Government.

By 2010, local authority's have been asked to use their resources to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured in road accidents by 40 per cent, to cut the number of children killed or seriously injured by half, and to aim for a ten per cent reduction in the number of people slightly hurt.