London mayor Ken Livingstone has marked the 10th anniversary of a charity for road crash victims by tripling the amount spent on road saftey in the city.

Transport for London (TfL), the city's transport authority, will spend �36.6m on road safety in 2002-2003, nearly three times the �13m spent in 2000-2001.

Up to �48m has been put aside in 2003-2004 as TfL aims for a 40% cut in road deaths and serious injury by 2010.

The extra funding was announced at a conference organised by RoadPeace, which provides support for road crash victims and those bereaved by crashes.

'Dramatically increased'

Mr Livingstone said: "Road deaths and injuries are a very serious problem, but they are often seen as individual, personal tragedies rather than reported as a major issue that society and government must do more to tackle. This must change.

"That is why I have dramatically increased the budget for road safety in London as a measure of how seriously I take this issue."

The money will be spent on traffic management schemes at accident hotspots and advertising campaigns to raise awareness.

London's "worst collision site" is east London's A406/A10 Great Cambridge Roundabout, Mr Livingstone said.

In the three years up to December 2001 it was the scene of 92 crashes which resulted in 117 casualties, of which five were serious.

Signals are being installed there in the hope of continuing the success of a similar scheme at Wandsworth Bridge in south London.

This led to a 73% reduction in collisions in the 18 months after the signals were put up, and cycle crashes fell from 13 to three.

Motorcycle concerns

Accidents in which motorcyclists were killed or seriously injured in London averaged 933 each year between 1994 and 1998 but rose to 1,195 in 2000.

The growing popularity of motorcycles and scooters led to this "worrying" 38% rise, a TfL spokesman said.

This happened over a period when there was a 9% decrease in accidents leading to similar injury in other forms of transport.

TfL is to stage a �800,000 advertising campaign aimed at motorcycle and scooter riders in the autumn.