A SUCCESSFUL road safety campaign is set to continue in 2009 as new figures released this week revealed that more than 4,000 motorists were caught committing offences on roads across Suffolk.

A SUCCESSFUL road safety campaign is set to continue in 2009 as new figures released this week revealed that more than 4,000 motorists were caught committing offences on roads across Suffolk.

In a week when it was announced that the number of people killed on the county's roads had fallen to a 10-year low in 2008, worryingly there was a 26pc increase year-upon-year in the number of people who had been seriously injured.

Ever since The Journal teamed up with the Suffolk Roadsafe Partnership in October to launch a campaign to Save A Life in a drive towards a Safer Suffolk, the latest figures have highlighted a 'disappointing rise' in serious collisions and a 'significant increase' in motorcycle casualties.

A multi-agency crackdown, which is supported by The Journal, ran from September to December, and this week the annual road accident casualty figures were released.

It showed that 31 people were killed on Suffolk's roads in

2008, with 333 people being seriously injured. Approximately 2,300 people were slightly injured.

Suffolk county councillor and chairman of the Suffolk Roadsafe Partnership Board, Guy McGregor, said: 'While I am extremely pleased to see the number of people dying on Suffolk roads decrease, I am disappointed to see the rise in serious injuries in 2008, especially as serious collisions have been decreasing for the last four years.

'There appears to be a significant increase in motorcycle casualties. This may be due to the surge in fuel prices late last year. It is reported that novice riders have been buying small cheap motorcycles in large numbers and using them for commuting trips. In response we will need to continue our motorcycle safety campaigns, training and enforcement.'

With extra police patrols out on the streets of north Suffolk, enforcements were carried out around wearing seatbelts, speeding, using a mobile phone and drink driving.

Last December the Suffolk Roadsafe Board approved a challenging action plan for 2009 and 2010 dealing with all types of road users and all age groups. And yesterday a Suffolk Roadsafe spokesman said: 'We have agreed to continue our successful Save A Life road safety campaign for 2009.

Provisional casualty figures for 2008 are 31 fatal, 333 serious and 2,294 slight. These compare to the 2007 figures of 39 fatal, 265 serious and 2,539 slight.