Campaign aims to slash motorcycle deaths toll

A MAJOR drive was launched yesterday to cut the "alarming" death toll among motorcyclists in the North-east of Scotland.

Motorcyclists make up only 2 per cent of road users in the Grampian police area, but last year they accounted for 26 per cent of road fatalities. Eight of the 31 people killed on the region's roads last year were motorcyclists and a total of 37 have been killed in the area over the past five years.

The new campaign – codenamed "Operation Zenith" – will run for the next seven months and is being organised by Road Safety Grampian, a partnership between Grampian Police and Grampian Fire and Rescue Service.

Chief Inspector Ian Wallace said: "Operation Zenith is a multi-pronged approach in a long-running campaign which is all about encouragement, education, engineering and enforcement.

"We want people to enjoy the freedom of our roads – but we want them to enjoy themselves responsibly. We will be talking to bikers right through the summer, highlighting the safe motorcycling message and giving advice on how to improve their riding standards."