YOUNGSTERS at two Guiseley schools are still playing Russian roulette with their lives when they try to cross a busy road to get to school, a motorist claimed this week.

Motorist Benjamin Carter drives along Bradford Road to get to work in Yeadon every day - and says that pupils at Guiseley School and Tranmere Park Primary School are dicing with death every time they cross the road.

And after a near miss one morning last week when a Range Rover swerved to narrowly avoid a youngster, Mr Carter, of Bradford, said he is willing to back a parents' campaign to get the road made safer.

As previously reported, Leeds City Council has been unable to appoint a new crossing warden since the previous one left earlier this year and has been conducting traffic surveys to test the possibility of introducing some form of automated crossing on the road.

Mr Carter told the Wharfedale Observer: "The Range Rover was going about 50 miles an hour, so it could have been going a lot faster. But a kid just ran out in front of it and the driver did well to avoid hitting him.

"The problem is that the traffic is so heavy and can go quite a lot quicker than that.

"What happens is that the kids get tired of waiting to get across, so they chance it, which is what everyone would probably do after a while.

"It really frightens me. One day a kid's going to get seriously hurt or worse unless something is done. I know it's difficult for the council, but I support the parents on this. They must be petrified of sending their kids to school."

The Wharfedale Observer revealed last December that there had been no regular crossing warden at the site for several months, and despite numerous appeals both in this paper and on television, no-one has come forward to take on the job.

A campaign, led by parents Linda Wilson and Dr Anne Connelly, has put pressure on the council to get the situation sorted out before what they claim to be the inevitable happens and a child gets killed.

A spokeswoman for Leeds City Council's education department said: "Unfortunately, despite extensive advertising, no applicants have come through for the position of school crossing warden. Press coverage stimulated a lot of interest in other areas of the city, but sadly not in Guiseley.

"We will continue to do our utmost to recruit a warden for this site, which has been given priority status and we hope that someone from the community will come forward.

"A traffic survey has been conducted along this stretch of Bradford Road. The results are being analysed and the findings will be announced in due course."