A special service is to be held for North Yorkshire road accident victims - with the eight people killed in the last five days bringing the county's death toll to 82 this year.

Police hope the commemorative service at Ripon Cathedral on Sunday will help bring home to motorists the deadly toll being taken in North Yorkshire.

News of the service comes on the day that a York woman was named as one of the dead in Saturday's horrific motorway pile-up.

Police also had to deal with the deaths of an elderly couple killed yesterday when their car hit a stationary van on the B1257 near Helmsley.

PC Mark Savage of Malton police said the accident happened at the Hawnby junction as the couple were driving towards Helmsley.

"The van was parked on a verge at the side of the road and the driver was working away from it when the accident happened," he said.

"The couple's car collided with the stationary vehicle and they were killed; they were pronounced dead at the scene by a local doctor who attended."

The van driver was unhurt, but was said to be in shock.

Witnesses are asked to contact PC Savage, telephone 01653 692424 or 01723 500300.

Police today named the York woman killed in the pile-up on the A1(M) in North Yorkshire at the weekend as Sandra Kay Jennings, 37, of Huntington Road, York.

She was a passenger in the Vauxhall Carlton which overturned after hitting the central reservation and ended up on the hard shoulder.

Her sister and brother-in-law Karen McCutcheon, 39, and Colin McCutcheon, 44, from Aberdeen, were also killed in the pile-up along with three "Good Samaritans" who had stopped to help.

They were killed after an articulated Sainsbury's lorry ploughed into a removal lorry and then a Range Rover at the scene of the initial accident.

The driver of the articulated lorry was arrested and questioned by police before being bailed to a later date.

The driver of the Carlton remains in a critical but stable condition in Harrogate District Hospital.

Superintendent Dave Short, of North Yorkshire police, said Sunday's service would give the families and friends of accident victims the opportunity to remember their loved ones.

"But we also hope that the service can raise the profile of road safety and make people think about their responsibilities as road users," he said.

"From Saturday eight more people have been killed in the county and that is a tragic loss of life."

The service, which will start at 3pm, is one of many being held across the country to remember accident victims.