Despite the considerable success of an ongoing traffic police campaign to encourage Greeks to drive more carefully, road death figures have started to rise again, according to statistics made public yesterday.

The National Statistics Service said road deaths had increased 13.7 percent in January — compared to the first month of last year — while the number of serious road accidents was 6.1 percent higher.

There were a total of 1,189 serious accidents all over Greece in January, in which 116 people died, 183 were badly injured and 1,409 lightly hurt. In January 2002, 102 people died, 158 were severely injured and 1,310 lightly hurt in 1,120 accidents. Most of January’s serious accidents (603) were in the Athens area, with 20 people killed. The death rate was much higher in the Peloponnese (22 deaths in 114 crashes) and Crete (11 deaths in 20 crashes.)