HIGHWAY chiefs are targeting accident black spots across the New Forest under a £1m plan to cut the number of deaths and injuries.

Hampshire County Council is carrying out urgent road safety work on 13 Forest roads that saw almost 120 injury accidents over a three-year period. Nearly 40 of the crashes occurred on two of the major routes through Totton.

New measures to cut the accident toll in the town include anti-skid surfaces on the A35 at Rushington and new on-road facilities to protect cyclists using the A36 Salisbury Road.

Dangerous roads in Hythe, Lymington and Ringwood are among the other routes where safety is being improved.

In a separate scheme the county council is redesigning roads outside ten schools in the Forest in an attempt to protect children.

The initiatives were unveiled at a meeting of the New Forest highway management advisory panel. Officers said the county council was improving 13 sites in the district under a countywide casualty reduction programme that was set to cost £1.05m.

The scheme follows 118 injury accidents on Forest roads in 1999-2001.

A New Forest Road Safety Council spokesman said: "We welcome anything that improves safety and reduces accidents. Hopefully, if we all work together, we will see a decline in the number of accidents occurring at some of the worst black spots in the district."

New Forest locations in the casualty reduction programme:

Hythe: Applemore Roundabout, Heath Roundabout and the Veals Lane bends.

Lymington: High Street, the Wheel Inn crossroads and Sway Road.

Ringwood: High Town Lane, Parsonage Barn Lane and Northfield Road.

Totton: Salisbury Road, Calmore Road and the Rushington Roundabout.

New Milton: The B3058 between its junctions with Manor Road and Osborne Road.

The county safer routes to school programme will benefit children at the following sites: Bransgore Primary, Copythorne Infant, Lydlynch Infant (Totton), Netley Marsh Infant, Orchard Infant and Junior (Dibden Purlieu), Ringwood School, Poulner Infant and Junior (Ringwood) and St Luke's Primary (Sway).