CASUALTIES from crashes involving West Mercia police cars have fallen in the last year, Government figures have revealed.

Home Office statistics show that there were 24 police car collisions that resulted in injuries in the year ending March 2004.

Two of the victims were seriously injured, while the other 22 sustained minor injuries - while in year ending 2003 there were 34 people injured - a reduction of 10.

The decline comes despite a massive 60 per cent rise in the number of police car collisions nationally.

The Home Office said that there were 2,015 last year, including 31 fatalities. In 2002-2003 there were 1,259 collisions with 22 people killed.

A spokeswoman for West Mercia police said: "We are constantly striving to improve our driver safety record and these figures show a significant reduction on the previous year.

However, we are not complacent and we will do all we can to reduce deaths and injuries on our roads."

Three years ago, the Police Complaints Authority published a damning report into the way police pursuits were carried out after an almost five-fold increase in the number of fatalities since 1998.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission -which has since replaced the PCA - said officers must not take 'unacceptable risks' in pursuits.

IPCC chairman Nick Hardwick said: "Training and risk assessment are the keys to reducing deaths and serious injuries involving police drivers."