THE number of people killed or seriously injured on North Yorkshire’s roads has fallen – and police and safety campaigners say it proves their hard-hitting message is working.

New figures have revealed there were 445 victims last year, 108 fewer than in 2010, with four fewer fatalities.

The statistics, which will be presented to North Yorkshire Police Authority (NYPA) next week, showed the number of motorcyclists suffering serious injuries dropped by 19 per cent last year.

Stark safety videos by the 95 Alive York and North Yorkshire Road Safety Partnership highlighting the dangers bikers face were recently launched to support the campaign for improved road safety.

The films – the first of which focus on the B1222 between Sherburn-in-Elmet and Stillingfleet and the B1257 between Helmsley and Stokesley, which are seen as accident blackspots – were premiered last week and will be available on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter with the aim of making motorcyclists aware of potential hazards.

The NYPA report, which will be discussed next Monday, said reducing the number of KSI (killed or seriously injured) casualties among bikers had been “a considerable focus” for North Yorkshire Police and 95 Alive.

Five of the region’s most popular routes for motorcyclists were monitored by the safety partnership to assess their accident levels last year. The results showed a 19 per cent decrease in KSIs, despite the overall number of journeys falling by just four per cent.

Jeremy Holderness, chief executive of the police authority, said in a written report: “This is very encouraging and supports the findings of the 95 Alive partnership’s own evaluation of publicity campaigns and other activities, namely that a continuing varied mixture of approaches together with co-ordinated police enforcement operations, is the most effective way to work with the motorcycle communities to reduce crashes and casualties.”

95 Alive is now “closely monitoring” how many elderly drivers and pedestrians are involved in crashes in North Yorkshire as it looks to devise strategies for keeping them safe.

The partnership has also been working with schools across the region since last summer to encourage lessons based on a road safety theme to be held, and the success of this initiative is currently being evaluated.