A HARD-HITTING advertising campaign urging parents to make sure their children are properly restrained in cars is about to start.

North Yorkshire Police and the county council's road safety team have put together a radio advert to stress the consequences if an unrestrained youngster is in an accident.

Both organisations are aiming to increase the number of children wearing seatbelts or fastened into child seats.

At the moment, 83 per cent of front seat passengers and 73 per cent of rear seat passengers are properly restrained.

However, the road safety team and the police want to see the figures rise to 95 per cent and 90 per cent respectively by 2010.

The advert tells the story of a four-year-old boy called Toby, who does not like wearing his restraint so is left to travel without wearing it in his parents' car.

He dies after a car accident when he goes through the windscreen.

The advert ends with the words "Toby died at the side of the road in his mother's arms just four-years-old.

"Safety was down to his mum and his dad. With child seats and seatbelts, there's too much at stake, it isn't a choice for a child to make."

The advertisements will be heard on local radio stations, including Stray FM and Radio York, from the middle of this month.

The campaign also involves education and enforcement strategies, public child seat checking sessions and information sessions.

David Lindsay, from the council road safety team, said: "We want to get across the message to parents and all other adults who may be carrying children in a vehicle.

"That message is not to take the children on a journey unless you have the correct, and correctly fitted, restraint.

"Over the years, we have seen some awful examples. Seven children in one car, and none of them restrained, was one of the worst.

"These advertisements are hard-hitting, but we feel justifiably so.

"This is a vital message; children must be properly restrained in vehicles, for their own safety and the safety of others."