WILLITON Fire Station have teamed up with Danesfield School to highlight the need for a permanent crossing outside the school.

Currently the school has temporary traffic lights outside the school, but these are set be removed before the end of 2016 once the roundabout at Washford Cross is completed, meaning the children will be left to cross a busy and poorly lit road.

Members of the fire crew spent 45 minutes surveying 100 motorists driving toward the school from the Watchet direction, and their results were quite worrying.

Fourteen per cent of vehicles were driving over the speed limit, 20 per cent of drivers were not wearing seatbelts and four drivers using mobile phones, one of which was a bus driver with around 15 passengers on board.

Mr Austin-Thompson said: "The discussions were very rewarding as all the students had their own experiences to bring to the conversation, I was able to help explain the consequences of driving over the speed limit and the impact this has if you then crash without a seat belt properly fitted.

"We hope this will start embedding the importance of safe driving at this young age.”

Mr Austin-Thompson said the second point of the day was to inform drivers of their actual speed past the school to encourage them to be more responsible for their actions.

Nigel Thompson, vice principal at Danesfield School, expressed his dismay at the findings of the Fire Station's survey.

"Traffic outside the school causes a potential risk for our children. Having a crossing here has helped but having a permanent crossing would help to keep children safe.

"I am shocked by the amount of divers that the pupils caught speeding, on mobile phones or without seatbelts. This just shows how much risk is out there on the road.

"In the evening pedestrians can walk from Watchet to Williton with street lighting most of the way apart from outside our school. We have clubs on until 4.30pm most nights and the building is used by many local groups so I think street lighting would also improve road safety for the whole community."