A million-pound project is being launched in a bid to cut the high number of child road accident victims across the Bradford district.

Bradford is one of only four authorities nationally to be chosen by the Department for Transport to be part of the £4 million Neighbourhood Road Safety Initiative, aimed at improving road safety in areas where there are high levels of child casualties.

The four areas chosen are Manningham, Little Horton, Bradford Moor and Keighley, where there were a total of 410 children killed or injured on the roads between 1999 and 2002. The figures included 130 casualties in Little Horton and 126 in Manningham.

Bradford is receiving £1.16 million of the overall budget which will be used to finance an eight-point plan in the two-year project.

The thrust of the project will be to physically improve safety at roads worst hit by child casualty accidents, which will receive £500,000 of the funding, and to create safer places to play, using £250,000.

Money will also be spent on educating children to be more aware of road safety after a link was established between casualties and social deprivation.

Simon D'Vali, the Bradford project co-ordinator, said that children in the lowest socio-economic group were five times more likely to be killed as pedestrians than those from higher groups.

He said that was mainly due to high volumes of traffic using the areas and higher than normal levels of pedestrians because of the low numbers of car owners, as well as a lack of leisure and recreation facilities.

Mr D'Vali added: "By adopting a community-based approach we can address these issues at a local level and provide the facilities that the community wants and needs."

The number of accidents in the four areas, which nearly all occurred in 30mph zones, showed there were still high levels of child casualties in the inner city areas of Bradford, he said.

Mr D'Vali said there would be a number of engineering projects on danger roads, including traffic-calming measures, pedestrian crossings, speed limit reductions and electronic roadside warning signs.

He added the project would also be looking at improving footpaths and street lighting to make it more attractive for children to get to parks and community areas. Mr D'Vali went on: "Establishing what the link is between child casualties and social deprivation is very difficult now.

"Deprivation involves wider issues which won't be established overnight, or indeed over two years. But we will have an education programme that will be community-based for all the children in the areas."

Another aspect of the project will be to increase the number of people using seat belts and child car seats.