SHOCKING footage of a “lunatic” 'car-surfing' along a Bradford street has been condemned as “shocking idiotic behaviour” by a leading road safety charity.

In dashcam footage sent to the Telegraph & Argus, a man can be seen laying on the windscreen and roof of a vehicle as it travels past a police patrol car and other vehicles in Otley Road in Barkerend.

The man, who is facing backwards with his feet on the car’s front windscreen wipers and holding on to the open front window frames, could be seen waving to people while being carried along the street.

The stunt has been branded “idiotic” and “reckless”, while the motorist who submitted the footage, which has also been submitted to police through Operation Steerside, said he had never seen anything so stupid in his life.

The witness, who asked not to be named, said: “It was unbelievable.

“There was a police car in front of me, and they were probably so gobsmacked themselves they decided not to follow them as it was too dangerous, in case the man fell off.

“He was probably in his late teens or early 20s and the guy driving the car was about the same age.

“I cannot think of any reason why anyone would event consider doing something like that, even for a bet. I certainly would never do anything like it.

“It was pretty scary, they pulled out of a side road and were going a fair speed down the road.

“It doesn’t bear thinking about what might have happened if he had fallen off.

"If he had fallen forwards he would have gone right under the car and been run over, or he could have fallen off sideways into oncoming traffic.”

The incident involved a blue Seat Ibiza which was being driven in Otley Road towards Barkerend Road.

Jason Wakeford, spokesman for road safety charity Brake, called for police to take action against those involved.

Mr Wakeford said: “This footage is truly shocking.

“This idiotic behaviour could have easily seriously injured or even killed someone. We would encourage West Yorkshire Police to urgently investigate and find out the identity of these reckless individuals.”

Councillor Hassan Khan (Lab, Bowling and Barkerend) branded those involved as “lunatics”.

He said: “It is ridiculous and scary, I have never seen anything like this in my life.

“The police really need to take action on this, he put his own life and the lives of others in danger.

"We need strong action against these lunatics and we need more police patrols in the area.”

Cllr Khan also gave his backing to the Telegraph & Argus Stop the Danger Drivers campaign, and called for harsher punishments for dangerous drivers.

“While police are out on patrol they need to be checking people’s registration numbers to see if the cars are insured and taxed, because we suffer from very high insurance prices here and that is because of lunatics and idiots like these people,” said Cllr Khan.

“Current legislation is also too soft, it needs to be stronger to stop this kind of driving and behaviour.

“Somehow we need to find a way to stop them from doing this kind of stuff in the streets.

"It is just ridiculous, what on earth are they thinking?”

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said officers were continuing to look into the incident which happened on Friday, June 9, at about 7.55pm.

He said: “We are making further enquiries into this footage to establish the full circumstances of this incident.”