SURREY County Council has faced calls for urgent action to tackle the sharp rise in the number of people killed and seriously injured on Surrey’s roads.

It follows the recently released figures showing that Surrey’s road network had the third largest increase in people killed and seriously injured in England and Wales last year.

According to the Department for Transport, the number of deaths on Surrey roads more than doubled in 2014, increasing from 18 in 2013 to 38 deaths last year.

Lib Dem county councillor Will Forster accused the Tory administration at County Hall for not giving road safety the attention it deserves, adding the figures should act as a “wake-up call” to urgently improve road safety on Surrey’s roads.

“The number of people killed and seriously injured on Surrey’s roads is unacceptable,” he said. “Each person killed is a tragic loss and impacts severely on their family and friends. This cannot be allowed to continue.

“I am calling on the Conservative administration to give much higher priority to road safety. This must include more funding for road safety education such as through Drive SMART, road safety outside schools and highways improvements.

“Much more could be done to make Surrey’s roads safer, for example by making sure that all roads have appropriate speed limits, warning signs and road markings to alert drivers to hazards, pedestrians crossings to help pedestrians cross the road safely, cycle lanes and junction improvements.”

Mr Foster will present a motion on road safety to the next meeting of the full Surrey County Council on Tuesday (October 13).

Responding to the Lib Dems’ calls, Surrey Police said there was “no clear reason” for the increase in people killed and seriously injured on Surrey’s roads and defended its approach to road safety.

A spokesman for Surrey Police said: “Surrey Police takes road safety extremely seriously and works on a number of casualty reduction initiatives to educate motorists, including the Drive SMART programme with Surrey County Council.

“The force has a dedicated roads policing unit which is committed to reducing the number of people involved in collisions on the county’s roads, which are some of the busiest in the country with the M25, the M3 and A3 in its boundaries.

“The increase seen in 2014 in those killed or seriously injured on the road has been thoroughly analysed and no clear reason for the increase has been identified. This rise was also in line with an increase for the majority of forces.”

Drive SMART was launched in September 2009 by Surrey Police and Surrey County Council to improve road safety and tackle anti-social driving through education, engineering and enforcement.

Its latest campaign urged cyclists and motorists to take more care around junctions and roundabouts, while previous safety drives have focussed on mobile phone use, speeding and drinking and driving.