A NATIONWIDE campaign to reduce speeding and dangerous driving will see speed cameras on three main roads near York.

North Yorkshire Police is joining Operation Vis, the speed reduction campaign set up by the National Police Chief's Council, which sees safety camera vans positioned on routes that see the most serious collisions.

In North Yorkshire, roads policing officers and 11 camera vans will be out in force at 55 points on the A64, A65 and A1(M) this week, as well as surrounding routes, nearby residential areas and B-roads.

Next week, further enforcement will be carried out in residential and community areas, with Community Speed Watch groups supporting the campaign.

Andy Tooke, of North Yorkshire Police’s Traffic Bureau, said: "Excessive and inappropriate speed is consistently one of the common factors in the fatal and serious injury collisions we deal with. We see the devastating collisions and horrific injuries it causes. And often speed-related collisions are entirely preventable.

"The safety cameras we use have been independently proven to reduce casualties by 20% when deployed to a site. That site may be a high-speed road like the A1(M) or it may be a small rural village, but either way we want to have a strong presence and high visibility to ensure motorists drive carefully and stick to the rules of the road. We won’t just be enforcing speed though. As ever, we’ll be using our cameras to enforce other offences too, including drivers using mobile phones, not wearing seatbelts or crossing solid white lines."

The force recently revealed the highest speeds recorded by mobile safety cameras in 30mph community areas, which included 82mph in a 30mph zone in Wetherby Road, Harrogate.

Andy said: "Residents constantly tell us they don’t like people speeding through their communities, and Op Vis is one of the ways we can address these concerns head-on, with very high visibility and enforcement activities around housing, schools, parks and other community areas where speed poses a real threat to people’s safety."