DEATHS and serious injuries on North Yorkshire's roads have fallen by almost 13 per cent in the last eight years.

North Yorkshire Police said figures from the Department for Transport showed changing driver behaviour was largely responsible for the reduction, "following a raft of education and enforcement campaigns", and thanked motorists for "working with us to cut casualties".

INTERACTIVE: Click the different headings on the graph below to see how the figures have changed.

However, the number of people killed on the roads has increased in recent years, the figures show.

In 2013, 534 people died or were seriously hurt on North Yorkshire’s roads, but in 2017 that number had fallen to 465 – 69 fewer people.

Across England and Wales, there has been a 12 per cent rise since 2010 and Andy Tooke, of North Yorkshire Police’s Traffic Bureau, said the number of serious crashes had "consistently fallen throughout this decade".

He said: "The way people drive inevitably plays a big part in that, so we’d like to thank motorists for working with us to cut casualties and achieve such a significant reduction over a number of years.

"When we talk about casualty figures, it’s important to remember we’re talking about real people and real lives."

He said the reduction meant "fewer families that have to receive a knock on the door and the horrific news that a loved one has been killed or suffered life-changing injuries in a collision".

He said: "While many factors can contribute towards fatal and serious-injury collisions, driver behaviour is consistently one of the most significant factors.

"Throughout this decade, we’ve been educating drivers through things like operational activities, media campaigns and speed awareness courses, along side the use of enforcement techniques such as mobile safety cameras and highly proactive drink and drug driving enforcement. These figures suggest the strategy we’ve adopted is working and we are cutting casualties at a time when they’re actually increasing nationally. But we still have a lot of work to do – a single road death is one too many."

North Yorkshire Police use a dozen safety camera vans around the region, and credited these as part of the reason for the reduction - despite a recent report calling them "the single greatest underachievement of income" for the force, as they £2.1m less than expected in recent years. This again was credited to improved driver behaviour.

However, Roads Policing Inspector Dave Barf, of the Collision Investigation Team, said the number of motorcyclist being killed had risen, with more killed so far in 2018 than the entirety of 2017.

He said: "Sadly, despite the general downward trend so far this year has seen a rise in the number of motorcyclists killed on the roads of North Yorkshire.

"I’m saddened by each and every death we experience on our roads. Each one unexpected and each one devastating for those involved and those left behind."