MERSEYSIDE road safety chiefs have vowed to cut the number of deaths and serious injuries in the area's roads by 2020.

The Merseyside Road Safety Partnership wants to cut the number of deaths and serious injuries to an all time low of 400 within the next three years.

In 2015 casualty figures involving pedestrians, cyclists and motorists in Merseyside totalled 585 - the second highest number recorded since 2006.

Figures for 2016 show that the figure has risen further to almost 600.

There has been a rise in the number of casualties in Wirral since 2010.

Merseyside’s Police Commissioner Jane Kennedy said: “Every death or serious injury on the roads of Merseyside is one too many.

"Almost 570 families received that dreadful knock on the door last year, to be told that their son or daughter, wife or husband, mother or father had been seriously injured or even killed.

"For the family, that phone call, that knock on the door, stops the world turning.

“Here on Merseyside, too many people are knocked down, knocked off their motor bikes and cycles every year, or are injured in their cars.

"That’s why I have made working in partnership to improve road safety one of my policing priorities.

"Merseyside Police has a pivotal role enforcing the law to improve the safety of the travelling public especially on our road network.

“Ultimately it must be our vision that there is zero loss of life and much reduced risk of injury on our roads.”

As part of the drive to reduce the risk to cyclists, the partnership recently launched a Safe Pass campaign urging drivers to make sure they give cyclists enough room when overtaking them on the road.

The campaign has already featured a number of education and enforcement initiatives in the local area, designed to highlight the dangers of driving too close to cyclists.

Liverpool’s Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram said: “We urgently need to make our roads safer especially for more vulnerable groups like cyclists and pedestrians.

"We are not going to be able to promote cycling as a healthy, sustainable and family- friendly transport mode, unless we convince people it is safe.

“We need a concerted campaign, but also significant behavioural change from motorists in particular to be more responsible, aware and considerate.”