A NATIONAL campaign which aims to crack down on speeding motorists has been backed by Lancashire County Council.

The authority added it's weight to the government initiative which urges motorists across the county to "Kill Your Speed".

The county council and Lancashire Constabulary have joined forces to drive the campaign home in an attempt to cut the number of road accidents. Lancashire's highways and transportation chairman, County Coun Richard Toon, said: "Few people think of themselves as irresponsibly fast drivers.

"The trouble is that dangerous speed is much slower than we think.

"The message for motorists is clear -- when you get behind the wheel, drive at a sensible speed.

"Everyone who drives can play a part and help make the roads of Lancashire safer." Details of the campaign and free car stickers are available on the freephone action line on 0800 3281 635. Research indicates that speed is a major contributory factor in around a third of all road crashes.

The campaign also highlights how:

About two-thirds of all crashes in which people are killed or seriously injured happen on roads where the speed limit is 30mph or less.

70 per cent of people break the speed limit on these roads, though usually by no more than five or six miles an hour.

Even in good conditions, the difference between 30mph and 35mph is an extra stopping distance of around six-and-a-half metres - longer than two Minis.

Should a pedestrian be hit at that extra speed, the force of the impact increases by over a third, making injuries far more serious and death more likely.

At 35mph you are twice as likely to kill someone as you are at 30mph.

If a car is dropped nose down from the height of a two-storey building, it will be travelling at around 30mph when it hits the ground.