Last year, 86 people, including cyclists, pedestrians, lorry drivers and motorcyclists, were killed on the county's roads.

This compares with 64 deaths in 2006 – a rise of 34 per cent.

It is the highest number of deaths Cambridgeshire has seen since 2000, when 89 people were killed following collisions on the roads.

"Seven years ago we had a similar amount of fatalities on the road and it hit a peak," said Pc Tony Barrios, casualty reduction officer at Cambridgeshire Police.

"Since then, it had come down by around 10 to 15 people, but last year it hit a peak again."

Just last week, the Journal reported how a 26-year-old man from Soham was killed following a collision with a lorry on the A142 near Stuntney.

There have been a number of other fatal road accidents during the last few months, including 18 year old Olivia Mills, who was killed in September, minutes after leaving her Kennett home.

In December, motorcyclist Stephen Hockley, of Dullingham, died in an accident on the A142 Fordham Road in Newmarket.

The rise in fatalities has prompted police to introduce a number of targeted campaigns, including drink-driving initiatives, seat belt enforcement weeks and operations to target lorry drivers.

Pc Barrios added: "We are now looking at these deaths and identifying any high-risk groups so that we can target them through enforcement work and road safety campaigns.

"Government research shows that one in three of these accidents are either speed-related or down to driver error, such as driving too close to the car in front or failing to look.

"We have to instil in people that they're driving what is a potentially lethal weapon.

"On urban roads, 76 per cent of cars exceed the speed limit. If people slow down by one mile an hour it will cut the accident frequency rate.

"Too many people are being seriously injured or killed by making mistakes that are avoidable."

In Suffolk, there were 39 fatal road accidents in 2007. This compares with 47 in the previous year – a rise of 20 per cent.

Officers will also be running similar campaigns this year to cut the number of road deaths.

Lisa Crane, spokeswoman for Suffolk Police, said: "We are part of the Suffolk Roadsafe board, along with Suffolk County Council, Suffolk Fire and Rescue and the Highways Agency, and work together to provide road safety expertise.

"In our latest police review, road safety was one of the priorities for the force this year."