Bradford Council today backed an all-out to drive to cut the number of children in road accidents.

It comes as the accident toll rises across the county, despite attempts to promote the message that youngsters must take care.

The district's latest figures show 107 youngsters up to the age of four were involved in accidents in 1998 - two of them fatal.

There were 451 accidents involving five to 15-year-olds - with one youngster dying, five being seriously injured and 399 slightly hurt.

The average for the past five years was 82 accidents among younger children and 434 for the higher group.

The Council says that since 1990 there has been a cut in accidents involving child pedestrians in most of the district - but there has been an overall increase in over ten wards.

The Council estimates that the situation could be worse, however, and that about 650 child pedestrians have avoided accidents since 1990 because of measures to reduce speeding and raise road safety awareness.

Now the Council is throwing its weight behind a campaign launched by the Department of Environment and Transport for the Regions to cut the child accident toll across the county.

The £500,000 campaign will be based on two streetwise hedgehog brothers, who aim to keep youngsters safe on the roads.

The chairman of Bradford Council's transportation, plan-ning and design committee, Councillor Latif Darr said today: "This campaign has our full backing and we hope that families will encourage children to watch the commercials."

Figures for West Yorkshire show the total number of children killed or injured in road accidents increased from 962 in 1997 to 978 last year.

Bradford Council is also providing a pioneering "walk to school" project where safe routes are worked out for children on their way to classes.

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