CAMPAIGNERS are demanding more road safety measures outside a village school.
And they brought out a tame "zebra" to help their appeal for a new crossing at Upperthong Junior and Infant School.
Parents, teachers and Huddersfield-based national road safety charity Brake say a child will be killed if action is not taken to stop drivers ignoring the 30mph limit on Greenfield Road.
The road leads from Holmfirth to Manchester and is used as a commuter route.
The campaigners have been pressing Kirklees Council for two years to install a pelican crossing and lower the speed limit outside the school to 20mph.
The council has installed flashing warning signs and road markings to alert drivers to the school's presence.
But it has refused the campaigners' requests.
Head teacher Alex Beaumont said: "The lives of children from our local schools are put at risk every day.
"It is vital that our whole community gets involved in urging drivers to slow down around our schools."
Brake's chief executive, Mary Williams, said all school zones should have 20mph limits and she hit out at Kirklees Council's refusal to take further action.
She also said Government rules which say a speed camera cannot be put up until there have been four deaths or serious injuries on a road should be changed.
"It is up to drivers to slow down on this road. But it is also possible for the council to do much more without waiting until lives have been sacrificed," she added.
In a bid to highlight the problem, Brake's mascot, Zak the Zebra, went to the Upperthong school. Zak was launching Brake's national safety campaign, Watch Out There's A Kid About. The campaign runs a hotline for people to report danger roads.
Callers to the hotline on 08000 68 77 80 receive free advice and resources to help them seek action from councils and persuade drivers to slow down. Colne Valley MP Kali Mountford is backing the campaign.
A Kirklees highways department spokeswoman said Brake's suggestions would be unsuitable.
She added that Government rules would make it difficult to vary the speed limit.
"Traffic-calming measures, such as a lower speed limit or speed humps, are not feasible because most of the traffic problems are only during school start and finish times," she said. "This is a main arterial A-road and permanent measures would affect all the traffic all the time and lower speed limits would be difficult to enforce.
"A pelican crossing was ruled out because the site did not meet the rigorous criteria. These ensure that the crossing site would not put pedestrians at risk."
The spokeswoman said measures taken by the council recently would make drivers aware they were in a school zone.
