DRIVERS have been warned to get safer in the next few months or face a zero tolerance road safety policy from the police.

Speeding, drink-driving and failure to wear seatbelts will all be targeted as police chiefs get tough with dangerous drivers.

Tough government targets have demanded that police forces across Britain must slash the number of people killed or seriously injured in road accidents by 40 per cent, halve the number of children killed or seriously injured in road and reduce the number of slight accidents by 10 per cent -- all by 2010.

But Superintendent Alf Hitchcock, of Lancashire Police, today said the force was determined to have met those targets by 2005.

A massive array of hard-hitting posters coupled with more roadside spot checks will, the police hope, lead to a massive reduction in the number of people killed and injured on the roads each year.

And police say that if that does not work, they will enforce a clampdown across the county.

The new scheme has been launched using £4.23 million of government cash secured by Lancashire County Council for the creation of a new road safety project for the county.

It will cover the whole of Lancashire, including unitary authorities such as Blackburn with Darwen.

Superintendent Hitchcock said today: "The plan isn't just to go out and catch people, it is to educate people to become better drivers.

"We will be placing posters everywhere to warning people about speeding, using seat belts and drink driving and explaining just what the consequences are.

"After we have been doing that for a while, we will start clamping down. People can't accuse us of being devious -- we are giving them plenty of warning."

Speed cameras -- which are to be better signposted in future to give the public the chance to slow down -- will be used more, while the bi-annual drink drive campaigns will be extended to cover the months of June and November, which have become the peak times for alcohol-induced driving offences.

Superintendent Hitchcock added: "Summer and Christmas have always been seen as the problem times for drinking and driving but because of our campaigns, the peaks have shifted now to just before the campaigns begin.

"By extending the campaigns and increasing checks, we hope to stamp out that problem.

"We also plan to target people who don't use seat belts, particularly those in the backs of cars.

"As long as they are over 14, it is they, not the driver, who will be fined £30 if we catch them without a seatbelt.

"Not only are they putting their lives at risk, but they are also endangering the lives of the people in front of them."

Despite being secured by Lancashire County Council, the money will used to help the police in the unitary authority areas as well. Drive safely or you get zero tolerance!