A motorcyclists' lobby group has criticised Sussex Police for pulling bikers over to offer them high-visibility clothes.

About 150 motorcyclists and moped riders were stopped in a single week last month by police trying to address the death toll on the county’s roads.

Officers offered them high-visibility clothing, saying the gear could save bikers’ lives by stopping accidents.

But the Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) has written to the force saying it is over-simplifying the problem and should target drivers, not bikers.

The group’s president, Ian Mutch, said drivers speaking to police after accidents are more likely to say they could not see a motorcyclist before they hit them than say their own driving was to blame.

He suggested police launch Operation Spectacle to randomly test drivers’ eyesight.

Sussex Police has issued repeated warnings and safety advice to motorcyclists to try to reduce the number of deaths on the roads.

In the first five months of this year three deaths and 89 serious injuries among motorcyclists meant that despite bikers accounting for just 4% of traffic, they made up 26% of the people killed or seriously injured on the roads of Sussex.