HUNDREDS of children are to be drilled in road safety in a town's effort to reduced road accidents.

Fifteen Middlesbrough primary schools have signed up to the scheme and the council is appealing for grown up volunteers to help it cope with the demand for training.

The volunteers who must be parents or friends of the schools involved in the programme will be given training to assist them in passing vital road safety skills to five and six-year-old children.

Each child will receive nearly 16 half-hour training sessions over a one-year period, with two children assigned to each adult instructor.

Sharon Welford, Middlesbrough Council's local co-ordinator, said: "The Government has set a target by 2010 of cutting by 50 per cent child deaths and serious injuries on the roads. Kerbcraft is an essential part of meeting this target.

"We have had great co-operation from schools. Parents and other relatives of the children have shown a lot of interest in volunteering to pass on these skills to the children.''

Brambles Farm, Linthorpe and Easterside Primary Schools are to be the first schools to receive the Kerbcraft training which is being run over the next three years.

Britain's record of road accidents involving children is high compared to the rest of Europe and 100 local co-ordindators are being recruited across the country to set up schemes.