A dozen children lined up outside a school's gates yesterday (November 8) to send a stark message to drivers as part of National Road Safety Week.

Pupils at Faringdon Community College each wore T-shirts with with the message 'Slow Down!', as they represented the number of child pedestrians and cyclists killed or seriously injured in the region every month in southern England.

Glyn and Mary Koester, from Kingston Lisle, near Wantage, whose daughter Jenny died last year aged 14 after being knocked down by a van just yards from her home, urged motorists to slow down and make the county's roads safer. They are pictured with the pupils. Jenny, a pupil at Faringdon Community College, was killed after getting off a school bus on the A417 near Faringdon in January 2004.

Witnesses told how the driver of a blue Honda Civic "waved" the teenager into the path of oncoming traffic without being able to see the road ahead clearly. She was hit and killed by an oncoming van, whose driver sped off, but was never charged.

As part of the week, road safety charity Brake is urging drivers across the region to 'Watch Out, There's a Kid About!', to try and get them to slow down to 20mph near schools and in local communities.

They claim that at 20mph, nine out of ten children survive a collision, whereas at 30mph, the chances of survival are reduced to 50/50. At 40mph, says Brake, death is almost certain.