The number of drivers caught speeding has risen sharply.

More than 67,000 people have been fined a total of £2.19m in Thames Valley in the past year - a 26 per cent increase.

The figure, which compares with 53,000 the previous year, will be even higher when drivers who have not yet paid their fines are included.

Police pledged today to continue their offensive against speeding drivers to cut the accident rate and make roads safer.

Latest figures show that between April and December last year, accident figures in the force area - Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire - decreased.

The number of people killed or seriously injured fell from 1,421 to 1,316, a 7.3 per cent reduction on the same period in 1999. There was also an 8.6 per cent drop in the number of speed-related collisions, from 301 to 275.

The statistics are the first to be published since the launch a year ago of the Safer Roads project, in which the Government allowed some police forces, including Thames Valley, to use some of the cash collected in speeding fines to buy more cameras and to chase up drivers who failed to pay.

All the money previously went to the Treasury.

Thames Valley now has 21 roadside cameras, one mobile camera and three which target vehicles going through red lights.

Fixed penalties for speeding have recently increased to £60.

A police spokesman said they were pleased with the initial results of the Safer Roads project which was achieving its aim of reducing road accidents.

She said: "It does seem that people are taking on board what we are trying to do - to stop people being injured on the roads, and not to pick on drivers unnecessarily."