PUPILS from Ridgeway School in Prenton joined children from across Merseyside for lessons in road safety.

Year eight, nine and 10 pupils saw demonstrations of hydraulic equipment that is used to rescue people following crashes roads as part of a special Road Safety Day at the Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service's Training and Development Academy in Croxteth.

The day was held ahead of the launch of a summer of road safety sessions – due to take place every Friday during the holiday with firefighters at different locations highlighting safety messages.

Figures released earlier this year showed that 336 people were injured and eight people killed in road traffic collisions across Merseyside in 2013. Of those injured, 27 were aged under 18.

There have also been 213 people injured and two people killed in road traffic collisions attended by Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service in 2014 so far. Of those injured, 11 were aged under 18.

Watch manager John Cousins, who organised the event and is from the MF&RS Road Traffic Collision Reduction Team, said: “The event was set up like a market with different stalls with different information from organisations including the Mersey Tunnels Police, as well as information from ourselves.

"It is vital for us to highlight the road safety messages to school pupils, ahead of them learning to drive, because we know, from our call-outs, that we rescue more people from crashes on the roads than from house fires in Merseyside.

“Our aim is to make the communities of Merseyside safer and this is just one of the ways in which we work towards this goal.

"It was a great day and the pupils were certainly quiet amazed to see some of the cars being cut up in front of them. We want to reduce the number of people injured or killed on roads in Merseyside.”