Campaign aims to cut deaths on highways

Police chiefs joined forces with council officials and fire officers to launch the campaign to prevent another 95 deaths over five years amid concerns over the growing number of fatalities.

The county-wide push to prevent thousands of people being injured or killed on North Yorkshire's roads was dubbed 95 Alive, and it has seen an estimated 126 lives saved during the five-year initiative.

But the chairman of the 95 Alive partnership, David Bowe, admitted that efforts need to be intensified to ensure the number of fatalities does not start to increase once again.

While the target to save 95 lives has been exceeded by more than a quarter, 50 people were still killed on the county's roads during 2010.

Funding for the project is due to come to an end in March and while the authorities have pledged to continue to work together under the 95 Alive banner, the campaign will have to be scaled back amid the public sector cuts.

Mr Bowe, who is also North Yorkshire County Council's director of business and environmental services, admitted that the 95 Alive campaign had set "very ambitious targets" and paid tribute to the "staggering achievements" of those involved.

But he added: "We see the appalling reality of fatal and serious injury crashes, over 300 people have died in the past five years on the roads of York and North Yorkshire, thousands have been seriously injured, and while this is a big reduction on the 430 people killed in the previous five years it is still a huge tragedy."

The campaign was launched in 2005 to target high risk road users such as motorcyclists as well as inexperienced motorists amid escalating concerns over the increasing number of road deaths.