A CAMPAIGN to encourage people to wear seatbelts has been launched across Worcestershire and Herefordshire.

The Belt Up initiative will see thousands of bookmarks with safety messages distributed to every school child in the two counties to reduce the number of people killed and injured in crashes.

Last year, across the West Mercia region, 96 people died and 5,050 were injured in collisions on roads. One in 10 of those were not wearing a seatbelt.

Sergeant John Roberts, the West Mercia casualty reduction manager, said an "alarming" number of people did not travel safely.

"We are very concerned that, despite the legislation, people continue to travel without wearing their seatbelts," he said.

"We know that people are continuing to flout the law, particularly when they travel in the back of a vehicle.

"We also know that many child safety seats are incorrectly fitted, offering little or no protection to babies and young people in the event of a crash."

Between April and August, an average of more than six motorists per day received fixed penalty notices for seat belt offences in South Worcestershire - an increase of more than 73 per cent on the previous year.

Over the five months, 1,015 motorists were penalised, although more incidents actually took place as some resulted in cautions and others in court appearances.

The figures show a sharp increase compared with 1,396 for the previous 12-month period - just 3.8 cases per day on average.

"The figures reflect our intention to uphold these important regulations and minimise injury to drivers and passengers involved in collisions in Malvern Hills, Worcester city and Wychavon," said Chief Insp Howard Owen.

The vast majority of the offences in South Worcestershire - 987-- involved adult drivers and passengers, while the remaining 28 involved children travelling without a seat belt.

Sir Jimmy Savile, the man behind the 1970s' Clunk Click seatbelt campaign, is backing the Belt Up scheme alongside Worcestershire County Council and Herefordshire Council.