THE Government has revealed that it hopes to launch the new Road Safety Strategy - which is believed may see fleet drivers targeted in a bid to reduce casualty figures -later this month, more than a year after it was originally meant to be published. The delay has caused outrage at Brake, the non-profit making road safety charity, which has accused ministers of allowing people to die unnecessarily on the UK's roads.

The strategy was originally expected in autumn 1998, and then autumn last year, before the publication date was put back to December and now mid-January. A Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions' spokesman said: 'The Government is committed to road safety and it is important the fine-tuning of the strategy is done properly.

'We also want to ensure its publication does not clash with any other transport issue, such as the publication of the Transport Bill, which would have robbed the Road Safety Strategy of a lot of valuable publicity.' But Mary Williams, Brake executive director, said: 'I'm desperately concerned at the Government's delay because the longer we wait the more lives are being lost unnecessarily because organisations like ours and the police need the direction it provides.'