Last updated 11:45, Monday, 11 August 2008

TWENTY people died on Cumbria’s roads in the first half of 2008 – one fewer than over the same timescale last year.

Between January and June there were 116 seriously injured casualties (of which 12 were children) – down from 168 in the same period last year.

Casualties with slight injuries were 899, of which 101 were children. This is a fall from 1,019 last year.

The figures have just been released by Cumbria Road Safety Partnership.

Communications manager Kevin Tea said: “While we cannot afford to be complacent, figures for the first six months of this year are encouragingly low.

“Having come in under the Government’s killed and serious injury (KSI) target for 2010 three years early in 2007, we were aware that we needed a step-change in effort to maintain this decline.

“We negotiated new KSI targets with the Government as an incentive to further drive down casualties in 2008. Two road user groups – motorcyclists and young drivers – remain key priorities,” said Mr Tea.

“All the hard work by partners must be mirrored by our ‘invisible partner’ – the general public – as it is changes in driver attitudes and behaviour that will determine Cumbria’s success in reducing the grief and misery caused by road traffic collisions.”