A BRAND new drama performance is taking place in schools around Bradford to help children be more aware of road safety and potential dangers in their surroundings.

Bradford Council’s road safety team has commissioned “The Riot Act” to deliver its Pedestrian Safety Education Programme “Deadly Distractions” to secondary schools pupils in year seven and year eight pupils.

The hard hitting performance is aimed at raising awareness of the risks young people face as a pedestrian, focussing on the danger of distractions and thrill seeking behaviour and will help students to combat peer pressure.

Hanson Academy, in Swain House, was the first of the schools to put on the performance on Monday.;

The drama group will now go on to attend 17 other secondary schools, ending with Titus Salt School, in Baildon, on March 26.

Hanson Academy head of year seven, Danielle Whitaker, said the performance was well received.

“The children really seemed to enjoy it. The performance lasted for around half an hour and then there was a questions and answers session afterwards where they were given chance to ask questions of the cast.

“It was delivered in a hard-hitting way but also in a very comedic too. It was quite funny and went down well.

“It followed three main school characters and not only told them how to deal with peer pressure, but also how to keep safe within their own local environment as well.

“It was perfectly pitched for our 11 and 12-year-olds.

“It really caught the children’s imagination and they wanted to know more about the characters.

“It was also ideal for our school as we have a lot of children walking to school.

“We have no school bus service to Hanson Academy so children are either driven here by parents or walk.

“A lot of them are pedestrians and this additional road safety message is particularly pertinent to us.

Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Housing, Planning and Transport, said: “Hopefully this drama performance will help young people think about their behaviour as pedestrians and improve their attitude to road safety.”

Bradford Council said traffic incidents are the single biggest cause of accidental death for 12 to 16-year-olds, adding that almost two in three teenagers have admitted to being distracted when crossing the road.