INATTENTIVE drivers and motorcyclists are set to be targeted in a road safety campaign running through to next year.

INATTENTIVE drivers and motorcyclists are set to be targeted in a road safety campaign running through to next year.

Suffolk Roadsafe Partnership Board held a meeting to discuss how the ten-week road safety campaign, Save A Life, was received by the public and what course of action to take next.

The board, which consists of Suffolk County Council, Suffolk Constabulary, Suffolk SafeCam, the Highways Agency and the East of England Ambulance Service, presented some ideas about how to take the campaign forward into next year, including looking at the issue of inattentive drivers, as well as the four core areas of not wearing seatbelts, using a mobile phone, speeding and drink and drug driving.

Motorcyclists were also highlighted as a concern, considering the alarming numbers of accidents involving them. Among the plans include a £400,000 funding bid for the eastern region to give additional training to newly qualified riders.

The Evening Star ran campaign in conjunction with the Board's partners and the aim was to raise awareness of the shocking statistics surrounding the amount of accidents on the county's roads.

Guy McGregor, chairman of the board and portfolio holder for environment and transport at Suffolk County Council, said: “We were focusing on the issue of accidents on motorcycles and looking a great deal at every single one of the killed or seriously injured cases.

“It is very difficult when you talk about issues like speeding but we felt this particular campaign got the message across to the public quite well.”

Mike Motteram, the board's co-ordinator, added: “There was a very positive response to the campaign and we want to take it through to next year.

“We are at the stage where we are looking at the accident picture and some elements appear to be positive. However with the bad weather and the Christmas period coming up, it is too early to confirm where we will be with this at the end of the year.

“It will be the end of January before we can review this three-month period.”

Formed last year, the board, which will next meet in March, sees key agencies in the county work together to make Suffolk's roads safer.

Did the campaign affect you? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk.

The latest police enforcement figures showed that there were a total of 3,613 offences committed behind the wheel across Suffolk during the ten-week campaign.

Out of these, 1,532 motorists were caught without their seatbelts on, 467 were driving while using a mobile phone, and 1,044 were done for speeding.

In total 3,590 fixed penalty notice tickets and 23 arrests were made.