North Wales Police have doubled the number of mobile speed units in their fleet in the latest drive to reduce the number of casualties in accident blackspots.

A total of six vehicles will be patrolling over 27 routes from Friday in a bid to catch speeding motorists.

North Wales statistics, Jan 1998 - Dec 2000

Over 13,000 collisions 173 deaths 1,243 serious injuries 11,605 minor injuries

It is part of a campaigned, entitled Arrive Alive, launched last year in response to government targets of a 40% casualty reduction on UK roads by 2010.

Latest figures show there have been over 13,000 crashes in the North Wales Police force area in the past three years and nearly 180 deaths due to road traffic accidents.

The statistics revealed speed was a major factor in around one in three of the collisions in which someone was killed.

Safety chiefs say the campaign should have a direct affect on the number of road deaths.

Denbighshire County Council's Road Safety Officer, Alan Hinchliffe said: "Some people say that drivers are only slowing down where they know the cameras are.

Routes targeted

Denbighshire A525 Nant-y-Garth to Llandegla A525 Denbigh to Ruthin A451/A525 St Asaph to Bodfari A494 Ruthin to Llanferres Flintshire B5129 Kelsterton to Saltney Ferry A548 Gronant to Flint A541 Mold to Caegwrle Wrexham A539 Trevor to Erbistock A483/A5 Ruabon to Chirk A541 Wrexham to Cefn-y-Bedd A525 Wrexham to Redbrook Maelor

"We would like to create the ideal world where all drivers, on all roads, at all times are obeying the speed limits."

The new project follows a pilot scheme in eight areas of the UK, which the force claim has proved highly successful.

In the test schemes the number of people who were killed and seriously injured fell by nearly 50%.

In north Wales the vehicles are patrolling routes where speeding has been sited as a contributory factor in the number of people who have been killed or injured.

The routes targeted include the A541 Mold Road from Wrexham to Cefn-y-Bedd where there has been one death and 10 serious injuries in the past three years.

On the A548 in Flintshire from Gronant to Flint- where three deaths have occurred and 18 serious injuries.

In Denbighshire the A525 Ruthin to Denbigh road has been identified as an accident blackspot.

As has the A547 Colwyn Bay to Old Colwyn in Conwy where there has been nine serious injuries in the period from January 1998 and December 2000 .

Tough measures

Last month the chief constable of North Wales Police called for tougher measures of help reduce the number of road accidents caused by speeding motorists.

Richard Brunstrom outlined his ideas on road safety to MPs at Westminster whilst giving evidence to the Commons transport committee.

The chief constable insisted that a "cultural shift" in drivers' attitudes towards speeding had to be achieved in the same way that drink-driving had been curbed over the last 25 years.

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