POLICE in Accrington and Blackburn are set to launch a high profile crackdown next week on motorists who don't wear seatbelts.

Officers will patrol the main routes in both towns during the week-long blitz, in a bid to combat serious injuries in road traffic accidents.

Officers will also be checking vehicle registration details to ensure drivers have registered ownership of the cars.

Sergeant Keith Jackson, of Accrington's Road Safety Unit, said there had been an increase in motorists not belting up, and not registering ownership of vehicles.

A monitoring officer will keep a check on whether drivers are wearing their belts and a group of officers further down the road will conduct spot checks and issue £30 fixed penalties to drivers contravening the regulations.

"We have had a couple of serious accidents this year where serious injury was caused by not wearing seatbelts," said Sgt Jackson.