HUNDREDS of pupils made a stand against speeding motorists in a world record-breaking walking bus attempt.

Pupils from two primary schools in East Lancashire armed with ‘slow down’ banners walked in tandem with tens of thousands of children across the country to encourage drivers to reduce their speed in and around school areas.

The children from Holy Trinity RC Primary School, Darwen, and Sacred Heart RC Primary School, Blackburn, walked around their schools at 10am yesterday for the chance to enter the record books.

Organised by road safety charity Brake, the Giant Walking Bus aimed to appeal to drivers to slow down to 20mph or below in built-up areas to protect children on foot.

Youngsters also hoped to raise awareness about the number of children killed and hurt on roads as well as learn about road safety.

Key Stage One leader at Sacred Heart RC Primary School Shamim Ashraf who helped organise the walk with teacher Iain Ford, said: “We have a general drive in school about road safety and getting more parents to walk their children to school rather than drive.

“People do drive past the school at more than 20mph and we want to raise awareness that children don’t have anywhere safe to play and will play games in the road.

“The 200 children who took part were really excited and elated that they could break a world record.

“The children are pleading with motorists to slow down and we hope this will have an impact.”

Julie Townsend, Brake’s campaigns director, said: “Brake supports families whose children have been killed or maimed on roads – so we know the terrible devastation these tragedies cause.

“At 30mph or more, you would barely slow down before hitting them, potentially with catastrophic results.”