Sowerby Bridge, which gained the unwelcome reputation of England's worst accident blackspot in 1984, has seen the number of serious crashes in the town almost halved in the past five years.

New quarterly figures for 2008, released by the Sowerby Bridge Safety Group, show the number of serious and slight bumps to be notably down in both Sowerby Bridge and Ripponden.

Joan Watson, group secretary, said: "There has been a solid decrease but we are all just trying to do what is right.

"There has been really good support for us as well – no one wants to be worse at anything in the country, especially something like that."

1984 was a grim year on Calderdale's roads with 22 deaths, 11 of which were in Sowerby Bridge, and 800 casualties prompting police warnings and public outcry.

And Bolton Brow, Sowerby Bridge, hit the headlines in 1993 when a lorry disaster claimed the lives of six people.

But this year's Sowerby Bridge figures show there have been 12 crashes resulting in 16 casualties, one serious and no fatalities.

In Ripponden there were nine crashes and 22 casualties, four of which were serious and no fatalities.

Kate Marsh, a deputy road safety officer for Calderdale Council, said: "To have this in the town centre of Sowerby Bridge is extremely good and shows people are taking notice of road safety messages."

In December last year Sowerby Bridge residents demanded action to make the town's roads safer after 18-year-old Omair Ahmed Awan, of Thrum Hall Drive, Halifax, died when his car hit a lamp-post and demolished a wall on West Street, a section of road nicknamed "Mad Mile".