HEREFORDSHIRE'S fire chief retires today (Thursday) saying it's time for "shock-horror" tactics to tackle the county's road accident record - currently about 80 victims a month.

Divisional officer Ray Rogers told the Hereford Times that his crews were being called to road accidents "every other day" with serious injuries or fatalities occurring at least once every two weeks.

Mr Rogers said road safety was the big issue for his successor. He hoped new powers that firefighters had to handle terrorist incidents could deal with bad and dangerous driving.

And, with appropriate guidance, graphic images of how bad accidents are should be shown in local schools, said Mr Rogers.

"We've got to get them young, perhaps shock-horror is what's needed now. The accident record for a county this size is unacceptable," he said.

His successor agrees. Divisional officer Ian Taylor, who takes charge in August, said he wanted to work with the police and Herefordshire Council on an effective approach to road accidents.

The new Fire and Rescue Service Act - drawn up to define responses to terrorism - allowed fire services to take responsibility for any aspect of public safety, he said.

Partnership work during Mr Rogers' time in charge has already made a big difference to the number of fire emergencies in the county. Calls to non-property fires alone are down by 40%.

A joint project with Herefordshire Primary Care Trust that linked public safety and social welfare issues has so far accessed about £4 million in funding for improvement ideas, said Mr Rogers.

That kind of initiative can be put into tackling the road toll, a worthwhile investment when fatal accidents cost up to £1 million to deal with once the time and skills of emergency services involved are taken into account, he said.

Latest figures show 11 deaths and 960 injuries on Herefordshire's roads over the past 12 months - an average 80 a month. The county's emergency services attended about 54 accidents each month.