THE family of a teenage motorcyclist killed in an accident last year are backing a campaign to help reduce bike-related injuries and deaths on the roads.

There have been 11 fatalities and 149 serious injuries following collisions involving motorcycles in the last three years in Worcestershire, and 28 per cent of all those killed or seriously injured in road traffic collisions involved a bike.

One of those incidents saw 19-year-old Carl Cocks lose his life in a collision on the B4424 Old Hills Road at Callow End last June.

The Safer Roads Partnership launched its 2011 “Think Bike” campaign this week and Carl’s sister Lea-Ann says her family are “100 per cent” behind it.

“We are fully behind anyone that helps keep somebody riding a motorbike safe,” she said. “I think that once people pass their tests then perhaps they stop looking in their mirrors as much as they should. I know that since Carl died I have looked in my mirrors an awful lot more than I did before."

See this week's Malvern Gazette for the full story.