SCHOOLS in Bradford have used Road Safety Week 2016 to raise awareness of issues such as speeding and illegal parking, as a new report shows that a quarter of traffic injuries to children across West Yorkshire last year took place on the district’s roads.

The national week of action, coordinated by the road safety charity Brake, has seen thousands of schools and organisations, supported by emergency services, back the Make the Brake Pledge campaign, asking motorists to be Slow, Sober, Secure, Silent, Sharp, and Sustainable.

Figures in Bradford Council’s Transport and Highways Performance Report for 2015/16, set to go before the authority’s Environment and Waste Management Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday, show that 33 children were seriously injured on the district’s roads in 2015. The figure was up from 28 in 2014, and made up of 25 per cent of children killed or seriously injured across the county last year.

There were no child fatalities on Bradford’s roads, with the serious injuries breaking down to 23 pedestrians, four cyclists, four car passengers, one driver of a car, and one motorcyclist.

The Council states the figures are still showing an “overall long-term downward trend” as it bids to cut the number of injuries to a baseline of 22 by 2026.

Today, a number of children were out in force with officers from the Council and West Yorkshire Police to raise awareness of road safety issues in their local areas.

At St Matthew’s CE Primary School, off Mayo Avenue, in Bradford, pupils donned police uniforms to act as traffic wardens and issue pretend tickets to any parents parking irresponsibly on yellow or zig-zag lines next to school crossings.

The tickets will be in official pouches but will contain leaflets with information about safe parking designed and produced by the children.

Year One teacher Kirsty Keates said: “The children have really enjoyed this project. They have led it all week and all the ideas have come from them. This is a week of positive action to help educate parents about not parking irresponsibly. Real council wardens will start patrolling next week and issuing tickets so we hope this week’s activities help to raise awareness among parents about not parking illegally.”

The road safety campaign has also included a poster competition with pupils’ work being laminated and posted on the school’s fence, and workshops for parents and pupils about parking and crossing the road safely.

Councillor Abdul Jabar, Bradford Council’s executive member for neighbourhoods and community safety, said: “The children and staff at St Matthew’s CE Primary, and the Council staff, are to be congratulated for this innovative way of highlighting the importance of people parking responsibly outside of school. It is good to see young people taking the lead in this community project and we hope it will have a positive impact on parents.”

At Heaton Primary School, pupils designed road safety posters, took part in sessions on how to cross the road safely, and joined police with speed guns to monitor traffic travelling past the school on Haworth Road.

PC Andy Rhodes, who helped to lead two days of action, said: “We need to get children talking about road safety and going home to talk to their parents about it. A lot of the problem is that parents don’t know the laws.

“We’re sending that message out through the kids and they’re talking to their families and it’s setting alarm bells ringing. There is still room for improvement in terms of people’s awareness of road safety. It is getting better, the message is getting out there, but we need to keep enforcing and reiterating it as it’s a continual process.”

Praising the work of police and Council wardens, Zoe Mawson, head teacher at the school, added: “They have helped our children to understand how they can keep themselves safe and remind drivers about their responsibilities in protecting all members of the Heaton community.”

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