LOCAL police took steps to reduce the number of serious road accidents on local roads recently, by monitoring the speed of traffic travelling along the A31.

Officers from Alton teamed up with officers from the traffic unit at Whitehill last Tuesday, to carry out speed checks on the notorious stretch of the A31 between the Hen and Chicken at Froyle and the Bull Inn at Bentley.

The action followed recent accident figures released by Hampshire Police, which showed that fatalities have more than tripled since last year on the roads of the Central Hampshire Division, of which Alton is a part.

Inspector Steve Mote of Alton Police, said: ÒIn 2002, 18 people have lost their lives in the division area, up from five people in 2001. It is also a fact that the roads around Alton, Petersfield and Whitehill bore the brunt of this figure, with most of these accidents happening in the eastern part of the division.

ÒIn over a third of these cases, the incidents have come about due to excessive speed for the road conditions, and it is for these reasons that we are making a special effort to try and curb the speed of traffic on our most dangerous roads.

ÒI would like to establish that this was not in any way a revenue-gaining exercise: there is a problem to be addressed, and we feel that this is the best way of addressing it. There are few better ways to getting people to slow down, and we only stopped the very worst of offenders.

ÒDespite only stopping the very worst offenders, we still managed to enforce 22 speeding penalties. We would like to send the message to the public that speeding, especially in such dangerous areas, will not be tolerated.

ÒThe worst of the offenders was a motorbike which was clocked doing over 110mph near the Bull Inn. Considering his speed, the rider is likely to receive an automatic disqualification, and it is possible that he could face dangerous driving charges as well.

ÒThis will be an ongoing programme, so these checks will continue in the coming weeks. The checks are carried out by unmarked cars that are fitted with video equipment, so not only are they very tough to spot, but they also produce hard evidence.

ÒWe hope that these future checks will provide enough of a deterrent to cut the number of serious accidents and fatalities in the area.Ó