POLICE have joined forces with an East Lancashire shoe firm to help stamp out child casualties on the county's roads.

The firm has developed a range of road safety-themed footwear, complete with zebra stripes and flashing Traffic lights, to help raise awareness of the dangers amongst children.

The innovative project has won the backing of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and its crest will appear on the shoe boxes, which will also contain a child-friendly version of the highway code.

Children at Primet Primary School, in Colne, which is in an accident hot spot, will be among the first to test drive the new shoes.

They will each receive a free pair from Courtesy Shoes, of Bacup, at a special assembly next Tuesday.

Following the Primet High School initiative, the traffic shoes will be available nationally from Matalan, Brantano and Adams stores.

Traffic management officer, Colin Peacock, from Colne Police is the man behind the initiative. He said: "1,103 children were killed or injured on the county's roads last year - a heavy toll, leaving hundreds of friends and family members devastated.

"The road safety shoes and the highway code are designed to increase children's awareness of road safety and build on the good work already under way by ourselves, the Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety and others to reduce casualties."

He added: " Courtesy Shoes have been terrific, working with us to develop what was a very simple idea into an excellent road safety initiative.

"As well as the shoes, they've also produced specially-designed boxes that fit in with the national road safety campaign and they've agreed to include a child-friendly highway code and Green Cross Code.

"To top it all, they've given one of our local schools a free pair of shoes for each child."

Michael Kelly, director of Courtesy Shoes, said: "We are very proud of our traffic range of shoes.

"Not only are they smart schoolwear to complement any uniform, we believe they will actually help to keep children safer on the roads.

"As a parent, I am fully aware of the dangers of the ever-increasing volume of traffic that children negotiate to and from school. If our product assists in the national safety campaign and reduces injuries and fatalities, our investment has been justified."