WORCESTERSHIRE County Council has missed its own targets for reducing the number of casualties in road accidents.

Figures for January to July 2007, which were released at the annual Safer Roads Partnership review, reveal the authority has missed overall targets to reduce numbers injured or killed on the county's roads, but has beaten national targets.

A spokesman for the county council said: "Just one serious or fatal injury is one too many as far as we are concerned.

"We can look at the national picture and say we've got a decent record. However, we still want to further reduce that.

"We do have accident studies data to look at how accidents occur and if there are trends and what we can do to stop them."

For the first seven months of the year, 158 people were seriously injured or killed on the county's roads, missing the council's target of 155 but beating the national one of 215.

Between January and July, 15 children were seriously injured or killed. The authority's target was seven and the national one was 23.

The number of people with slight injuries for this period was 960 - the council's target was 921 and the national figure 1,111.

However, over the last seven years there has been a sharp drop in the number of casualties sustaining serious or fatal injuries.

In 1999 this figure was 381 (42 children), dropping to 376 (37 children) in 2000, 318 (27 children) in 2001, 320 (27 children) in 2002, 296 (26 children) in 2003, 283 (22 children) in 2004, 297 (24 children) in 2005 and 268 (14 children) in 2006.

The spokesman added: "Our performance over the last few years has staggeringly reduced the amount of people seriously injured or killed in the county, so the efforts that we have put in to keep people safe on the roads have born results over the years.

"Ultimately though, as the highways authority, there's only so much we can do on the roads in the county."